MELEAGRIS. 
5b 
The fir ft precife defcription of thefe birds is given by 
Oviedo, who, in 1525, drew up a fummary of his greater 
work, the Hiftory of the Indies, for the ufe of his 
monarch Charles V. This learned man had viiited the 
Weft Indies and its illands in perfon, and paid particular 
regard to the natural hiftory.. I' c appears from him, that 
the turkey was in ly.o days an inhabitant of the greater 
illands, and ol the main land. Ke fpeaks of them as 
yca.'!“':? c s ; for, being a new bird to him, he adopts that 
name from the relemblance he thought they bore to the 
former. “ But,” fays he, “ the neck is bare of feathers, 
but covered with a Ikin which they change after their 
phantafie into diverfe colours. They have a horn as it 
were on their front, and hairs on the breaft.” The next 
who fpeaks of them as natives of the main land of the 
warmer parts of America, is Francifco Fernandez, fent 
there by Philip II. to whom he was phyfician. This na- 
turalift obferved them in Mexico. We find by him, that 
the Indian name of the male was huexolotl, of the female 
cihuatotolin. I-Ie gives them the title of Gallus Indicus and 
Gallo-pavo. The Indians, as well as Spaniards, domefti- 
cated thefe ufeful birds. He fpeaks of the fize by com- 
parifon, faying, that the wild were twice the magnitude 
-of the tame; and that they were Ihot with arrows or guns. 
Fernandez wrote between the years 1555 and 1598, which 
was the period of Philip’s reign. Pedro de Ciefa mentions 
turkeys on the Ifthmus of Darien. Lery, a Portuguefe 
author, aflerts, that they are found in Brazil, and gives 
them an Indian name ; but we can difcover no traces of 
them in that diligent and excellent naturalift Marcgrave, 
who refided long in that country. In North America, 
however, they were obferved by the very firft difcoverers. 
When Rene de Laudonniere, patronifed by admiral Co- 
ligni, attempted to form a fettlement near the place where 
Charleftown now ftands, he met with them on his firft 
landing in 1564., and by his hiftorian has reprefented them 
with great fidelity in the fifth plate of the recital of his 
voyage. From his time the witnefles to their being na¬ 
tives of the continent are innumerable. They have been 
feen in flocks of hundreds in all parts, from Louiliana 
even to Canada; but at this time are extremely rare in a 
wild ftate, except in the more diftant parts, where they 
are Hill found in vaft abundance. It was from Mexico or 
Yucatan that they were firft introduced into Europe; 
for it is certain, they were firft imported into England as 
early as the year 1524, the 15th of Henry VIII. We pro¬ 
bably received them from Spain, with which we had great 
intercourfe till about that time. They were moft iucceif- 
fully cultivated in our kingdom from that period; info- 
much, that they became common in every farm-yard, and 
became even a dilh in our rural feafts by the year 1585 ; 
for we may certainly depend on the word of old Tufler, 
in his Account of the Chriftmas Hufbandlie Fare, in the 
Five Hundred Points of good Hufbandrie, p. 57. 
Beefe, mutton, and porke, fnred pies of the beft, 
Pig, veale, goofe, and capon, and turhie well dreft, 
Cheefe, apples, and nuts, jolie carols to heare, 
As then in the countrie, is counted good cheare. 
But at this very time they were fo rare in France, that 
we are told, that the very firft which was eaten in that 
kingdom appeared at the nuptial feaft of Charles IX. in 
1570. 
Every thing, therefore, concurs to prove that turkeys 
ure originally natives of America. As they are heavy 
birds, and cannot rife on the wing, or fwim, it would be 
impoffible for them to crofs the ocean which leparates the 
two continents. They are in the fame fituation with the 
quadrupeds, which, without the afliftance of man, would 
not have been difperfed through the old and new worlds. 
This refledlion gives additional weight to the teftimony 
of travellers, who affure us, that they have never feen 
■wild turkeys either in Africa or Afia, and that none are 
found there but fuch as are domeftic, and brought from 
©tiier parts. 
This determination of the natal region of the turkey 
leads to the decifion of another queftion, which, at firft 
fight, feems to have no connection with it. J. Sperling 
affirms, in his Zoologica Phyfica, p. 369, that the turkey 
is amonfter (he means an hybrid) produced by the union 
of the two fpecies, that of the peacock and of the ordinary 
cock; but, as it is afcertain’ed that the turkey is of Ame¬ 
rican extraction, it could not be bred by the intercourfe 
of two Afiatic fpecies; and what completely decides the 
point is, that no wild turkeys are found through the whole 
extent of Afia, though they abound in the forefts of Ame¬ 
rica. But it will be faid, What means the term gallo-pavo, 
which has fo long been applied to the turkey ? Nothing 
is Ampler: the turkey was a foreign bird which had no 
name in any of the European languages; and, as it bore 
feveral ftriking refemblances to the common cock and the 
peacock, a compound word was formed exprefiive of thefe 
analogies. Sperling and others would have us believe that 
it is really the crols-breed of thefe two fpecies; but the 
intermixture confifts entirely in the names. 
We mull now give a more particular defcription of our 
domeftic turkey, its habits, method of breeding, &c. 
The head of the turkey is very fmall in proportion to 
the body, and is deftitute of the ufual decoration; for it 
is almoft entirely featherlefs, and, together with a part of 
the neck, is only covered with a bluilh'lkin, befet with red 
flelhy paplllse on the fore part of the neck, and whitifii papil¬ 
lae on the hind part of the head, with forne fmall ftraggling 
black hairs, and a few feathers ftill more rare on the arch 
of the neck, and which are thicker in the lower part; a 
circumftance rarely noticed by naturalifts. From the bale 
of the bill, a kind of red flelhy caruncle falls loofely over 
a third part of the neck, which at firft light appears Angle; 
but, when examined, is found to be compoled of a double 
membrane. A flelhy protuberance, of a conical fliape and 
furrowed with deep tranfverle wrinkles, riles from the 
bottom of the upper mandible. This protuberance is 
fcarcely more than an inch long in its natural ftate of 
contraftion; that is, when the turkey, feeing no objedts 
but thole to which it has been accuftomed, and feeling 
no inward agitation, walks calmly feeking its food. But, 
on any unufual appearance, efpecially in the leafon of 
love, this bird, which in its ordinary ftate is humble and 
tame, fwells with inftant rage; its head and neck become 
inflated, the conical protuberance expands, and defeends 
two or three inches lower than the bill, which it entirely 
covers. All thefe flelhy parts affume at the fame time a 
deeper red; it briftles up the feathers on its neck and 
back, fpreads its tail like a fan, while its wings drop and 
even trail on the ground. In this attitude, he fometimes 
ftruts around his female, making a dull found, produced 
by the air efcaping from the breaft through the bill, and 
followed by a long gabbling noife. Sometimes he leaves 
his female to attack thofe who difturb him. In both thefe 
cafes, his motions are compofed; but they become rapid 
the inftant he utters the dull found which we have men¬ 
tioned. He vents a fiirill feream, which intermits from 
time to time, and which he may be made to repeat as of¬ 
ten as one choofes, by whiffling, or by forming any .lharp 
tones. He then begins again to wheel round, which 
aftion, according as it is diredted to his female, or pointed 
at the object that has provoked his diipleafure, exp relies 
attachment, or marks rage: and it is obferved, that his 
fits are the moft violent at the fight of red clothes ; he is 
then inflamed and becomes furious; rallies on the perfon, 
ftrikes with his bill, and exerts himfelf to the utmoft to 
remove an objedt whole prefence he cannot endure. In 
the villages of Norfolk and Suffolk, where great numbers 
of turkeys are bred for the London market, they drive 
them in large flocks by means of a flip of red rag tied to 
the end of a ftick, from which they ran with great ala¬ 
crity. It is a curious and very lingular fadl, that the co¬ 
nical caruncle, which lengthens and is relaxed when the 
bird is agitated by the violence of paflion, is relaxed in 
the fame manner after death. 
Naturalifts 
