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TURKEY
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TURKEY , an See also:abbreviation for Turkey-See also:Cock or Turkey-See also:Hen as the See also:case may be, a well-known large domestic gallinaceous See also:bird. How it came by this name has See also:long been a See also:matter of discussion, for it is certain that this valuable See also:animal was introduced to See also:Europe from the New See also:World, and in its introduction had nothing to do with Turkey or with See also:Turks, even in the old and extended sense in which that See also:term was applied to all Mahommedans. But it is almost as unquestionable that the name was originally applied to the bird which we know as the See also:guinea-See also:fowl (q.v.), and there is no doubt that some authors in the 16th and 17th centuries curiously confounded these two See also:species. As both birds became more See also:common and better known, the distinction was gradually perceived, and the name " turkey " became restricted to that from the New World—possibly because of its repeated See also:call-See also:note--to be syllabled lurk, lurk, tuck, whereby it may be almost said to have named itself (cf. Notes and Queries, 6th See also:series, vol. iii. pp. 23, 369). But even See also:Linnaeus could not clear himself of the confusion, and unhappily misapplied the name Meleagris, undeniably belonging to the guinea-fowl, as the generic term for what we now know as the turkey, adding thereto as its specific designation the word gallopavo, takeq from the Gallopava of C. See also:Gesner,who, though not wholly See also:free from See also:error, was less mistaken than some of his contemporaries and even. successors.' The turkey, so far as we know, was first described by See also:Oviedo in his See also:Samaria de la natural historia de See also:las Indias2 (cap. See also:xxxvi.), said to have been published in 1527. He, not unnaturally, includes both curassows and turkeys in one See also:category, calling both " Pavos " (peafowls); but he carefully distinguishes between them, pointing out among other things that the latter make a See also:wheel (hacen la See also:rueda) of their tail, though this was not so See also:grand or so beautiful as that of the See also:Spanish " Pavo," and he gives a faithful though See also:short description of the turkey. The See also:chief point of See also:interest in his See also:account is that he speaks. of the species having been already taken from New See also:Spain (See also:Mexico) to the islands and to Castilla del Oro (See also:Darien), where it bred in a domestic See also:state among the Christians. Much labour has been given by various naturalists to ascertain the date of its introduction to Europe, to which we can at See also:present only make an approximate See also:attempt;' but after all that has been written it is See also:plain that See also:evidence concurs to show that the bird was established in Europe by 153o—a very short See also:time to have elapsed since it became known to the Spaniards, which could hardly have been before 1518, when Mexico was discovered. The possibility that it had been brought to See also:England by See also:Cabot or some of his successors earlier in the See also:century is not to be overlooked, and reasons will presently be assigned for supposing that one of the breeds of See also:English turkeys may have had a See also:northern origin;' but the often-quoted distich first given in See also:Baker's See also:Chronicle (p. 298), asserting that turkeys came into England in the same See also:year—and that year by reputation 1524—as carps, pickerels and other commodities, is wholly untrustworthy, for we know that both these fishes lived in the See also:country long before, if indeed they were not indigenous to it. The earliest documentary evidence of its existence in England is a " constitution " set forth by See also:Cranmer in 1541, which See also:Hearne first printed (See also:Leland's Collectanea, 2nd ed., vol. vi. p. 38). This names
Turkey-cocke " as one of the " greater fowles " of which an ecclesiastic was to have " but one in a dishe," and its association with the See also:crane and See also:swan precludes the likelihood of any confusion with the guinea-fowl. Moreover the comparatively See also:low See also:price of the two turkeys and four turkey-chicks served at a feast of the serjeantsat-See also:law in 1555 (See also:Dugdale, Origines, p. 135) points to their having become by that time abundant, and indeed by 1573 See also:Tusser bears See also:witness to the See also:part they had already begun to See also:play in " See also:Christmas husbandlie fare." In 1555 both sexes were characteristically figured by See also:Belon (Oyseaux, p. 249), as was the cock by Gesner in the same year, and these are the earliest representations of the bird known to exist.
As a See also:denizen of the poultry-yard there are at least two distinct breeds, though crosses between them are much commoner than purely-bred examples of either (see POULTRY). That known as the See also:Norfolk breed is the smaller of the two, and is said to be the less See also:hardy. Its plumage is See also:black. The chicks also are black, with occasionally See also: This has been much crossed with the See also:American See also:Bronze, the largest of all, which has the beautiful metallic plumage of the See also:wild bird, with the ' The See also:French Coq and Poule d'Inde (whence Dindon) involve no See also:contradiction, looking to the See also:general See also:idea of what See also:India then was. One of the earliest See also:German names for the bird, Kalekuttisch Hun (whence the Scandinavian Kalkon), must have arisen through some See also:mistake at present inexplicable; but this does not refer, as is generally supposed, to See also:Calcutta, but to See also:Calicut on the See also:Malabar See also:coast (cf. Notes and Queries, 6th series, vol. x. p. 185). 2 See also:Purchas (Pilgrimes, iii. 995) in 1625 quoted both from this and from the same author's Hystoria general, said to have been published a few years later. 2 The bibliography of the turkey is so large that there is here no See also:room to name the various See also:works that might be cited. See also:Recent See also:research has failed to add anything of importance to what has been said on this point by See also:Buffon (Oiseaux, ii. 132–162), See also:Pennant (See also:Arctic See also:Zoology, pp. 291–300)—an admirable See also:summary-and See also:Broderip (Zoological Recreations, pp. 12o—137)—9ot that all their statements can be wholly accepted. See also:Barrington's See also:essay (Miscellanies, pp. 127–151), to prove that the bird was known before the See also:discovery of See also:America and was transported thither, is an ingenious piece of See also:special See also:pleading which his friend Pennant did him the real kindness of ignoring. In 1672 Josselin (New England's Rarities, p. 9) speaks of the settlers bringing up " See also:great See also:store of the wild See also:kind " of turkeys, " which remain about their houses as tame as ours in England." The bird was evidently plentiful down to the very seaboard of See also:Massachusetts, and it is not likely to have been domesticated by the See also:Indian tribes there, as, according to Hernandez, it seems to have been by the Mexicans. It was probably easy to take alive, and, as we know, capable of enduring the voyage to England. Mexican See also:form of which it quite agrees in colour. White, pied and See also:buff turkeys are also often seen, and if care be taken they are commonly found to " breed true." Occasionally turkeys, the cocks especially, occur with a See also:top-See also:knot of feathers, and one of them was figured by Albin in 1738. It has been suggested with some See also:appearance of See also:probability that the Norfolk breed may be descended from the northern form, Meleagris gallopavo or americana, while the Cambridge breed may See also:spring from the See also:southern form, the M. mexicana of See also:Gould (Proc. Zool. Society, 1856, p. 61), which indeed it very much resembles, especially in having its tail-coverts and quills tipped with white or See also:light ochreous—points that recent See also:North American ornithologists rely upon as distinctive of this form. If this supposition be true, there would be See also:reason to believe in the See also:double introduction of the bird into England at least, as already hinted, but See also:positive See also:information is almost wholly wanting.' The northern form of wild turkey, whose habits have been described in much detail by all the chief writers on North American birds, is now See also:extinct in the settled parts of See also:Canada and the eastern states of the See also:Union, where it was once so numerous; and in Mexico the southern form, which would seem to have been never abundant since the See also:conquest, has been for many years rare. Farther to the See also:south, on the See also:borders of See also:Guatemala and See also:British See also:Honduras, there exists a perfectly distinct species, M. ocellata, whose plumage almost vies with that of a See also:peacock in splendour, while the See also:bare skin which covers the head is of a deep See also:blue studded with See also:orange caruncles (Proc. Zool. Society, 1861, pl. x1.). The genus Meleagris is considered to enter into the See also:family Phasianidae, in which it forms a subfamily Meleagrinae, See also:peculiar to North and Central America. The fossil remains of three species have been described by See also:Professor See also:Marsh—one from the See also:Miocene of See also:Colorado, and two, one much taller and the other smaller than the existing species, from the See also:post-See also:Pliocene of New See also:Jersey. Both the last had proportionally long and slender legs. (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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