WILD TURKEY. 
187 
The weight of the hen generally averages about nine 
pounds avoirdupois. Mr Audubon has shot barren 
hens, in strawberry 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, fifteen 
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 con- 
sider 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 measured 
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 hem 
When this turkey stood erect, the head was three feet 
from the ground. The animal was stately and hand- 
some, and did not seem insensible of the admiration he 
excited. 
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 remarkable differences in those animals, 
which have been domesticated 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, and 
black in others. Tame turkeys sometimes occur of an 
immaculate black colour ; others are exclusively white ; 
some are speckled or variegated ; and all these varieties 
are continued by propagation, under analogous circum- 
stances. In the wild state, a white, or even a speckled 
turkey, is unknown ; and we may venture to say, that 
a plain black one has hardly ever occurred. 
Moehring proposed the name of Cynchramus for this 
