WILD TURKEY. 
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of rage : this cry, sounding like rook, oorook, oorook, 
will be repeated at the pleasure of any person who 
should whistle, or strike the ear of the bird by any 
other acute or unusual sound. The appearance of any 
red cloth is sure to awaken his anger, and induce him 
to rush fearlessly on the disagreeable object, exerting 
all his power to injure or destroy it. 
In connection with the peculiar character of this bird, 
we may advantageously quote the sentiments of the 
great Franklin, who expressed a regret that the turkey 
should not have been preferred to the bald eagle as an 
emblem of the United States. Certainly this eagle is 
a tyrannical and pusillanimous bird, by no means an 
appropriate representative of a great and magnanimous 
nation, as was the eagle chosen by the Romans. 
“ Others object to the bald eagle,” says Franklin, in 
one of his letters, “ as looking too much like a dindon, 
or turkey. For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had 
not been chosen as the representative of our country; 
he is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his 
living honestly; you may have seen him perched on 
some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he 
watches the labour of the fishing hawk, and, when that 
diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it 
to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, 
the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. 
With all this injustice he is never in good case, but, like 
those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he 
is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is 
a rank coward ; the little kingbird, not bigger than a 
sparrow, attacks him boldly, and drives him out of the 
district. He is, therefore, by no means a proper emblem 
for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who 
have driven all the Kingbirds from our country, though 
exactly fit for that order of knights which the French 
call Chevaliers d' Industrie. I am, on this account, not 
displeased that the figure is not known as a bald eagle, 
but looks more like a turkey. For in truth the turkey 
is, in comparison, a much more respectable bird, and 
withal a true original native of America. Eagles have 
