40 
M E L 
feveral others. This troop of armed men attacked the 
boar; and it was at lad killed by Meleager. The con¬ 
queror gave the. Ikin and head to Atalanta, who had firft 
wounded the animal. This irritated the red, and parti¬ 
cularly Toxeus and Plexippus the brothers of Althaea, and 
they endeavoured to rob Atalanta of the honourable pre- 
fent. Meleager defended her, and killed his uncles in 
the attempt. Meantime the news of this celebrated con- 
queft had already reached Calydon; and Althasa went to 
the temple of the gods to return thanks for the victory 
■which her fon had gained: but, being informed that her 
brothers had been killed by Meleager, fhe in the moment 
of rel'entment threw into the lire the fatal ltick on which 
her Ion’s life depended, and Meleager died as foon as it 
was confumed. Homer does not mention the firebrand ; 
whence fome have imagined that this fable is poderior to 
that poet’s age. But he fays, that the death of Toxeus 
and Plexippus fo irritated Althasa, that fhe uttered the 
mod horrible curfes and imprecations upon her foil’s.head. 
The filter's of Meleager were fo difconfolate at the death 
of their brother, that they refufed ail aliment, and were, 
at the point of death, changed into birds called Melca- 
grides, whofe feathers and eggs, as it is fuppofed, are of 
a diderent colour. The younged of the fiders, Gorge and 
Dejanira, who had been married, efcaped this metamor- 
phofis. 
MELEA'GER, a Greek epigrammatic poet, was a na¬ 
tive of Gadara in Syria, or of Atthis, a village in its ter¬ 
ritory. His father’s name was Eucrates. The time when 
he flourilhed has been matter of difpute; but the autho¬ 
rity of a Greek fcholiad places him under the lad of the 
Seleucidae, about B. C. 96. He fpent his youth chiefly at 
Gadara, where he formed himfelf upon the ffyle and man¬ 
ner of Menippus, an elder poet of that place. He af¬ 
terwards redded at Tyre; and he finally pafled oyer to 
the ifle of Cos by way of refuge from the wars which 
ravaged Syria, and died there at an advanced age. 
There was a cynic ghilofopher of this name at Gadara, 
whom fome fuppofe to have been the fame perfon; but it 
feems improbable that one of that audere left Ihould have 
been attached to elegant poetry. 
Meleager was the firfl who made a colleftion of the 
fliort poems called by the Greeks epigrains. Of thefe he 
formed two fets, under the title of Anthologia; the fird 
of which was a lamentable proof of the impure licentiouf- 
nefs of that age and country, being entirely devoted to a 
paflion unfit to be named. The fecond, confiding of mif- 
cellaneous pieces, has formed the balls of the latter an¬ 
thologies of Agathias and Planudes. Many of the poems 
are his own, and pofiefs much elegance; and he prefixed 
fome verfes defcriptive of the work, and of the authors 
who contributed to it. An edition of the poems of Me¬ 
leager by Brunck, Lipf. 1709, 8vo. gives the number of 
129, mod of them epigrams. Gen. Biog. 
MELEA'GRIS, /. in ornithology, a genus of birds of 
the order gallime. Generic charafters—Bill conic, incur- 
vate; head covered with fpongy caruncles, chin with a 
longitudinal membranous caruncle; tail broad, expanfile ; 
legs (of the male) fpurred. 
Meleagris gallopavo, the only fpecies as yet difcovered, 
the origin of which is from America, Dr. Rees (New 
Cyclopaedia) fays, “ In Gmelin’s edition of Linnaeus, two 
fpecies are mentioned:” but this is not thefaft: Dr.Tur- 
ton has indeed, in his trandation of that edition, removed 
the Penelope fatyra into this genus, where it flood in the 
lad edition given by Linnaeus himfelf; but that was be¬ 
fore the genus Penelope was formed. We have therefore 
but one fpecies to defcribe, which Buffon fays is a large 
unwieldy bird; the anterior part of the head is Arangely 
covered and ornamented with a pendulous foft ftefhy fub- 
ftance, as alfo are the fides of the head and throat; the 
eyes are fmall, but bright and piercing; the bill convex, 
■fliort, and flrong; the wings moderately long, but not at 
all formed for fupporting lb large a bulk in long flights; 
the legs moderately long, and very robud. It is domefli- 
Vol. XV. No. 1023. 
MEL 
cated every-where, and varies much in its colours. In 
its wild date, it lives in woods, and feeds on nuts, 
acorns, and infefts; and roods on the highed trees. 
Turkeys are originally natives of America and of the 
adjacent iflands; and, before the difcovery of the new 
continent, there exided none in the old. Father du Tertre 
obferves, that the Antilles are their congenial abode; and 
that, if a little care be beflowed, they will there hatch 
three or four times in the year. But it is a general prin¬ 
ciple, that all animals multiply faded and grow larged 
and flouted in their original refidence: and this is exaitly 
what takes place with regard to the turkeys in America. 
Immenfe numbers, we are told, inhabit near the river 
Illinois; flocks of two hundred, fometimes even of five 
hundred, are feen at once. They are much larger than 
thofe in Europe, and weigh even, 40 pounds, which is at 
lead double the weight of our domeflic turkey: Jofieiin 
affirms, that home weigh 60 pounds. They are alio plen¬ 
tiful in Canada, in Mexico, in the vad country watered 
by the Mifliidppi, and in the Brazils, where they pafs by 
the name of arignauouffou. Sir Hans Sloane faw fome in 
Jamaica; and he remarks, that in almoll all thefe coun¬ 
tries they are in a wild date, and 1’warm at fome didance 
. from the plantations, and but gradually retire from the 
encroachments of the European lettlers. 
If ornithologifls agree that turkeys are natives of Ame¬ 
rica, efpeciaily of the northern part of that continent, 
they are no lefs unanimous in opinion that there are ex¬ 
tremely few or none of thefe birds in the whole of Alia. 
Careri informs us, that not only there were none origi¬ 
nally in the Philippine Iflands, but thofe introduced by the 
Spaniards from Mexico did not thrive. Du Halde allures 
us, that none are to be found in China, except what have 
been carried thither. It is true, indeed, that this Jefuit 
fuppofes thele birds are common in the Ead Indies; but 
it would feem that this is only a fuppofition founded on 
report; whereas he was an eye-witnels of the faft that he 
relates in refpeft to China. Father de Bourzes, another 
Jefuit, lays, that there are none in the kingdom of Ma¬ 
dura, which lies in the peninfula on this fide the Ganges; 
and he therefore concludes, that the French name, Coq 
d’lnde, mud have been derived from the Wed, not the 
Ead, Indies. Dampier faw none at Mindanoa; Chardin 
and Tavernier, who travelled over Afia, affirm pofitively, 
that there are no turkeys in the whole of that vad coun¬ 
try. According to Tavernier, the Armenians introduced 
them into Perfia, where however they have not fucceeded 
well; the Dutch carried them to Batavia, where they 
thrived exceedingly. Bofman and fome other travellers 
tell us, that, if turkeys be ever feen in the country of 
Congo, on the Gold Coad, at Senegal, or in other parts of 
Africa, it is only at the faftories and with drangers. Ac¬ 
cording to the fame travellers, their turkeys are evidently 
defeended from thofe carried thither by the Portuguefc 
and other Europeans, along with other poultry. 
Aldrovandus has attempted to prove at great length, 
that turkeys are the Meleagridcs of the ancients, or the 
African or Numidian hens, whofe plumage was covered 
with round fpots, like drops; but it is evident, and every 
body is now agreed on the fubjeft, that thefe are really 
our pintados, or Guinea-fowl, which indeed come from 
Africa, but which are quite different from turkeys. Ray, 
who maintains that turkeys have derived their origin 
from Africa or the Eaft Indies, feems to have fuftered 
himlelf to be deceived by names. That of the bird of 
Numidia, which he adopts, implies an African defeent; 
that of Turkey, and the bird oj Calicut, denotes an Afia- 
tic extraftion. But no proof can be drawn from the name 
bedowed by ill-informed people, or even the fcientific 
term impoied by philofophers, who are not always ex¬ 
empted from prejudices. Befides, Ray himfelf admits 
with Sloane, that thefe birds delight in the warm coun¬ 
tries of America, and there multiply prodigioufly. 
We do not find the lead mention of the turkey in any 
modern work written prior to the difcovery of America. 
G The 
