360 
WILD TURKEY. 
time, weighing thirteen pounds ; and he has seen some few so 
fat as to burst open by falling from a tree, after being shot. 
The male turkeys differ more in bulk and weight ; from the 
accounts I have received from various parts of the Union, fif- 
teen or twenty pounds may be considered a fair statement of 
their medium weight ; but birds of thirty pounds are not very 
rare ; and I have ascertained the existence of some weighing 
forty. In relation to those surpassing the last mentioned 
weight, according to the report of authors who do not speak 
from personal observation, I have not been able to find any, 
and am inclined to consider them as fabulous. Mr Audubon 
informs us, he saw one in the Louisville market that weighed 
thirty-six pounds ; the pectoral appendage of this bird mea- 
sured more than a foot in length. Bartram describes a speci- 
men of remarkable size and beauty, reared from an egg found 
in the forest, and hatched by a common hen. When this 
turkey stood erect, the head was three feet from the ground. 
The animal was stately and handsome, and did not seem in- 
sensible of the admiration he excited. Our plate, which is the 
first that has been given of the wild turkey, represents both 
sexes, reduced to one-third of their natural size ; the male was 
selected from among many fine specimens, shot in the month 
of April, near Engineer Cantonment, on the Missouri. It 
weighed twenty-two pounds ; but as the males are very thin at 
that season,* when in good order it must have weighed much 
more. 
Though comparatively recent, the domestic state of the 
turkey has been productive of many varieties ; we need not, 
therefore, be surprised at the existence of numerous and re- 
markable differences in those animals, which have been domes- 
ticated from time immemorial. The most striking aberration 
from the standard of the species, is certainly the tufted turkey, 
which is very rare, the crest being white in some specimens, 
* The extraordinary leanness of this bird, at particular seasons of the year, 
has become proverbial in many Indian languages. An Omawhaw, who wishes 
to make known his abject poverty, says, “ Wah pawne zezecah ha go ba , — I am 
as poor as a turkey in summer.” 
