we have yet to learn, nothing, indeed, is known respecting its manners in a state of nature, nor does it seem to be very abundant. Preserved specimens are in the British Museum, and in the museum of the Zoological Society.

THE TURKEY.

The turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo) is originally a native of America. The term meleagris, applied by modern zoologists to this bird, was given by the ancients to quite a different species, namely the guinea-fowl. According to Grecian fable, the sisters of Meleager mourning the death of their brother, were transformed into these birds, the plumage of which is covered with white spots, the showers of their tears. The application of the title meleagris to the turkey, arose from the obscurity in which it was enveloped when it first made its appearance in Europe, and the very names of Turkey, Coq d'Inde, Gallo d'India, and Indianische Hahn, prove the ignorance which prevailed respecting it. The history of the turkey, indeed, as it respects its introduction into Europe, is almost a blank. When, or by whom

it was brought, we do not know: most probably Spain first received it in the beginning of the sixteenth century from her new world colonies, and most likely it had been long antecedently domesticated in Mexico. Certain it is that Oviedo, in his Natural History of the Indies, (for so were the intertropical parts of America then called,) published at Toledo in the year 1526, describes the turkey as a kind of peacock, abounding in New Spain, whence numbers had been transported to the islands and the Spanish Main, and domesticated in the houses of the Christian inhabitants. Yet even in 1524, during the reign of Henry VIII., was the turkey known in England. There is an old distich which runs as follows:

"Turkies, Carps, Hops, Pickerell, and Beer,

Came into England all in one year."

It was about the year 1524 that hops, or the Humulus lupulus, were introduced into England from Flanders, and at the same time came in the turkey. In other respects the Mr. Yarrell, who, in

couplet is erroneous.

his history of the carp, notices these lines, says, 'Pike, or Pickerell, were the subjects of legal regulations in the reign of Edward 1. Carp are mentioned in the Book of St. Albans,

printed in 1496. Turkeys and hops were unknown till 1524, previous to which wormwood and other bitter plants were used to preserve beer; and the parliament in 1528, petitioned against hops as a wicked weed. Beer was licensed for exportation by Henry vii. in 1492, and an excise on beer existed as early as 1284, and also in the reign of Edward 1."

Difficult as it is to rear broods of turkeys in our country, they appear to have greatly multiplied soon after their introduction, for in 1541, we find them enumerated among the delicacies of the table. Archbishop Cranmer (Leland's 'Collectanea') ordered that of cranes, swans, and turkey-cocks, there should be at festivals only one dish; and in 1573, Tusser, in his Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, enumerates these birds as gracing the farmer's table at Christmas. In the present day the turkey, in a state of domestication, is very widely spread. In India it is reared, according to colonel Sykes, in great numbers by the Portuguese. It has not, we believe, extended to Persia. There is a humorous story told in the Sketches of Persia, that these birds are at least not generally known there. It appears that two English gentlemen, on their arrival

at the town of Kazeroon, on their way to Shiraz, heard a strange account of two remarkable creatures that were to be seen at a village fifteen miles distant. In answer to the questions which their curiosity prompted them to put, one old man said-They are very like birds, for they have feathers and two legs, and one of them has a long black beard on the breast. But the chief point on which they dwelt was the strangeness of their voice, so unlike that of any other bird they had ever heard. An old man who had gone all the way from Kazeroon to see them, said that the sound was very much like that of the Arabic language, but, nevertheless, he added, though he had listened to them with the greatest attention, he had not been able to understand a word they said. At great inconvenience, and with no little fatigue from the badness of the roads, the two Englishmen, excited by curiosity, gained the village: they were taken to the place where these strange creatures were kept, the door was unlocked, and, lo! out marched a turkey-cock and his mate. The former rejoicing in his freedom began to strut about, and gobble his Arabic, with great vociferation.

When informed by the

gentlemen, whose laughter was irrepressible, that these birds were common in India and England, the people were greatly surprised. The birds, it appeared, had escaped from a vessel which had been wrecked in the gulf of Persia, and had gradually made their way up the country.

We will not attempt to describe the turkey, for no one is unacquainted with its characteristics. It is certainly one of the ornaments of the farm-yard; the adult male in particular is a noble bird, and shows to great advantage, when with haughty port and expanded tail he struts about, uttering his guttural "Arabic." The carunculated skin of the head and neck changes from pale flesh colour to purple, and from purple to crimson, and ever and anon a smart jar with the wings as he draws them on the ground produces a whirring sound distinctly audible.

The male turkey is distinguished by short blunt spurs, and a tuft of long coarse black hair pendant from the lower part of the neck. The carunculated skin of the head and neck is more developed in the male than in the female, whom he much exceeds in size. The general plumage has a metallic lustre. In temper the