176 
MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO. 
that they are prisoners, all their exertions to escape are 
directed upwards and against the sides of the pen, not 
having sagacity enough to stoop sufficiently low to pass 
out by the way they entered, and thus they become an 
easy prey, not only to the experienced hunter, but even 
to the boys on the frontier settlements. 
In proportion to the abundance or scarcity of food, 
and its good or bad quality, they are small or large, 
meagre or fat, and of an excellent or indifferent flavour : 
in general, however, their flesh is more delicate, more 
succulent, and better tasted than that of the tame 
turkey : they are in the best order late in the autumn, 
or in the beginning of winter. The Indians value this 
food so highly, when roasted, that they call it “ the 
white man's dish,” and present it to strangers as the 
best they can offer. It seems probable that in Mexico 
the wild turkey cannot obtain such substantial food as 
in the United States, since Hernandez informs us that 
their flesh is harder, and in all respects inferior to that 
of the domestic bird. 
The Indians make much use of their tails as fans ; 
the women w^eave their feathers with much art on a 
loose web made of the rind of the birch tree, arranging 
them so as to keep the down on the inside, and exhibit 
the brilliant surface to the eye. A specimen of this 
cloth is in the Philadelphia Museum ; it was found 
enveloping the body of an Indian female, in the great 
Saltpetre cave of Kentucky. 
Among the benefits conferred by America on the 
rest of the world, the gift of this noble bird should 
occupy a distinguished place, as unquestionably one of 
the most useful of the feathered tribe, being capable of 
ministering largely to the sustenance and comfort of 
the human race. Though the turkey is surpassed in 
external beauty by the magnificent peacock, its flesh is 
greatly superior in excellence, standing almost unrivalled 
for delicacy of texture and agreeable sapidity. On this 
account it has been eagerly sought by almost all nations, 
and has been naturalized with astonishing rapidity 
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