June 26, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
THE GREAT A^rERICAN BIRD. 
E. OuST.M.ET^ in a recent bulletin of the French 
National Society of Acclimatization, tells how 
the turke}' came to bear the name of a country 
from which it did not come and to be no part 
of the heraldic insignia of the lands which gave 
it to mankind. For the turkey is unquestion¬ 
ably an American bird, and not Turkish, Indian 
or Asiatic in any way. Those who believe that 
they recognize the turkey among the fowls men¬ 
tioned or described in old Latin works are en¬ 
tirely at fault. What is there spoken of is the 
guinea hen or peacock. All the domesticated 
varieties of turkey are derived from the wild 
species formerly plentiful in the Ohio and Mis¬ 
souri valleys and still found from Kansas to 
Yucatan. The ancient Mexicans had begun to 
domesticate the birds. Cortez found them in 
Montezuma’s gardens. The Spanish pioneers of 
the new world took them for a kind of peacock. 
When they began to reach Spain,. about 1520 , 
they were called ‘'Indian peacocks.” The im¬ 
pression was still general that Columbus and his 
successors had reached some part of India. 
When brought into France they were called 
‘Indian fowls” and ‘‘Indian cocks” under this 
impression. Abbreviation of the French names 
■then given them, "poules d’Inde” and ‘‘coqs 
d’Inde,” has produced the words “dindes” and 
‘‘dindons,” by which they are known in present 
day French. They appear to have reached Eng¬ 
land about 1524 , in the vessels of merchants 
touching Spain on voyage to and from Turkey 
and the Levant. Hence they were supposed to 
come from Turkey and Asia. The legal difficul¬ 
ties of trade with Spain doubtless made their 
importers vague in telling of their origin. They 
seem to have found favor at once with lovers 
of good eating. Rules issued against extrava¬ 
gance at clerical feasts by Archbishop Cranmer 
in 1541 prohibited the serving of more than one 
“crane, swan or turkeys.” However, turkeys soon 
became relatively cheap. The expense accounts 
of a feast given in 1555 show that the turkeys 
cost only four shillings each, while cranes and 
swans cost ten shillings each. 
By 1573 Ihey were no longer a luxury of the 
rich. Farmers were accustomed to serve them 
at Christmas, and in some districts they were 
so numerous as to provoke complaint of their 
ravages in the hop and pea fields. And a book 
of directions for rural work, published at Paris 
in 1578 , contains rules for their breeding and 
rearing which show accurate knowledge of their 
peculiarities. Benjamin Franklin, we believe it 
was, wrote a protest against taking the eagle 
as the American national emblem. Others have 
suggested the turkey as a better emblem, be¬ 
cause distinctively American, and the most use¬ 
ful and beautiful large bird contributed by the 
Americans to mankind. 
It is too late to make any change in our 
heraldic insignia. Yet the turkey has a distinct 
place in American life, such as it has in that 
of no other nation. The cooking and eating of 
it have come to be a wellnigh indispensable part 
of the ritual of Thanksgiving, a peculiarly 
American national festival. So the turkey, 
though mis-named, is not without special honor 
in its own country.—Chicago Inter Ocean. 
WHERE WASPS PROTECT BIRDS. 
There are birds in the swamps of Vene¬ 
zuela, known as cassiques, that build their nests 
in close proximity to a dangerous species of 
wasp in order to avail themselves of the in¬ 
sects’ protection from the constant menace of 
the jungle. C. William Beebe explored this 
region, and, with his wife, has written his ac¬ 
count of it for a recent number of Harper’s 
Magazine. He discovered the nests of the 
cassiques close to the formidable wasps’ nests, 
the two creatures living in harmony. One 
sting from these wasps would kill a bird, and 
several stings throw a man into a severe fever. 
Hence the insects are dreaded by man and 
beast, and the cassiques find their neighbor¬ 
hood a safe one. Whether the ^yasps cannot or 
will not sting their neighbor birds is not known. 
lOO' 
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Drawer No. 6 Logansport, Indiana 
Sam LoveFs Boy. 
By Rowland E. Robinson. Price, $1.25. 
Sam Lqvel’s Boy is the fifth of the series of Danvis 
books. No one has pictured the New Englander with 
so much insight as has Mr. Robinson. Sam Lovel and 
Huldah are two of the characters of the earlier books 
in the series, and the boy is young Sam, their son, who 
grows up under the tuition of the coterie of friends that 
we know so well, becomes a man just at the time of the 
Civil War, and carries a musket in defense of what he 
believes to be the right. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
FOREST LIFE I>i ACADIE 
Many big-game hunters are familiar with Capt. 
Campbell Hardy’s fascinating book bearing this 
title. It is a most charming volume, dealing 
with sport in Nova Scotia forty years ago. It 
treats of the almost untouched forests, of the 
Moose, the Caribou and the hunting of both. 
Has much to say about the lake dwellers, Beaver 
and Otter, and the cave lodgers, the Black 
Bear and Porcupine, as well as about Brook 
Trout and Salmon. There are notes on New¬ 
foundland, something about camping out in the 
north and an attractive appendix, dealing with 
a variety of interesting subjects. 
The book is scarce and out of print. We have 
a copy, not in first class condition, but in good 
shape for reading. A perfect copy is worth $7 
or $ 8 . We offer this for $ 3 . 
FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Steel Fishing Rods 
^ — 
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matter how many otlier fishing rods you have, 
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Handy Fish Hook Disgorger with the 
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THE HORTON MFq. CO.. n 
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BY MAIL, POSTPAID, CIS* catalogue of fishing tackle 
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“ NEV-R -LOOZ-’EM 
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ANGLING MEMORIES 
> Seasonable Books for the Sportsman's Library ^ 
MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH I 
MY ANGLING FRIENDS 
Both by FRED MATHER 
These two volumes are a source of endless delight to the fisherman. They deal with 
every phase of the gentle sport from bent pins and willow poles to salmon flies and special 
rods—with every kind of fish as well. 
They are full of a quaint philosophy, written with a rare appreciation of human 
nature, and comprising sketches of angling “characters” as well as well-known men who 
were Mr. Mather’s brethren of the angle. Much of other sport and adventure beside fish¬ 
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splendidly printed, and richly illustrated volumes of 400 pages each regularly sell for $2 
each. While they last we offer ‘ 
Both together, postpaid, for $3.00 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY, NEW YORK 
