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Show 292 TURKEY. CHAP. VII1. peacock is a variety, the case is the most remarkable ever recorded of the abrupt appearance of a new for~, which so closely resembles a true species that it bas deceived one of the most experienced of living ornithologists. TnE TuRKEY. IT seems fairly well established by Mr. Gould, 35 ~hat .the turkey, in accordance with tho history of its first introductwn, IS descended from a wild Mexican species (Meleagris Mexicana) wh~ch had been already domesticated by the natives befor~ t~e discovery of America, and which differs specifically, as It IS generally thought, from the common wild species of the United_ States. Some naturalists, however, think that these two forms should be ranked only as well-marked geographical races. However this mav be the case deserves notice because in the United States "wild' male turkeys sometimes court the domestic hens, which are descended from the Mexican form, "and are generally received by them with great pleasur~." 36 Sever~l accounts have likewise been published of young bn·ds, reared m the United States from the eggs of the wild species, crossing and commingling with the common breed. In England, also, this same species has been kept in several parks ; from two of which tho Rev. W. D. Fox procured birds, and they crossed freely with the common domestic kind, and during many years afterwards, as he informs me, the turkeys in his neighbourhood clearly showed traces of their crossed parentage. We here have an instance of a domestic race being modified by a cross with a distinct species or wild race. F. Michaux37 suspected in 1802 that the common domestic turkey was not descended fwm the United States species alone, but likewise from a southern form, and he went so far as to believe that English and French 35 • Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,' April 8th, 1856, p. 61. Prof. Baird believes (as quoted in Tegetmeier's 'Poultry Book,' 1866, p. 269) that our turkeys are descended from a West Indian species now extinct. nut besides tho improbability of a bird having long ago become extinct in those large and luxuriant islands, it appears (as we shall presently see) that the turkey degenerates in In-dia, and this fact indicates that it wus not aboriginally an inhabitant of tho lowlands of the tropics. 36 Audubon's • Ornithological Biograph.,' vol. i., 1831, pp. 4-13; und 'Naturalist's Library,' vol. xiv., Birds, p. 138. 37 F. Michaux, 'Travels inN. Amc· rica,' 1802, Eng. translat., p. 217. CHAP. VIIT. TURKEY. 293 turkeys differed from having different proportions of the blood of the two parent-forms. English turkeys are smaller than either wild form. They ha~e not varied in any great degree ; but there are some breeds whwh can be distinguished-as Norfolks, Suffolks, Whites, and Copp.er-co~oured (or Cambridge), all of which, if precluded from c~ossmg With other breeds, propagate their kind truly. Of these l~mds, the most distinct is the small, hardy, dull-black Norfol~{ turkey, of which the chickens are black, with occasionally W~Ite patche~ about the head. The other breeds scarcely differ except m colour, and their chickens are generally mottled all .ove~ with brownish-grey.38 The tuft of hair on the breast, whwh IS proper to the male alone, occasionally appears on the breast. of the domesticated female.39 The inferior tail-coverts vary m number, and according to a German superstition the hen lays as many eggs as the cock has feathers of this kind.4o In :S:olland there was formerly, according to Temminck, a . beautiful ~uff"!ellow breed, f~rnished with an ample white topknot. M1. Wilmot has descnbed 41 a white turkey-cock with a cr~st formed of "feather~ about four inches long, with bare qmlls, and a tu~t of sof~ white down growing at the end." Many of the youn.g b.uds whilst young inherited this kind of crest, but aTfhte · rw·a rds It . either .f ell off or was pecked out by the ot he r. bI' r d s. IS Is an mterestmg case, as with care a new breed might probably have been formed; and a topknot of this nature would have ~een to a ce~tain extent analogous to that borne by the males m several allied genera, such as Euplocomus, Lophophorus and Pavo. ' Wild turkeys, believed in every instance to have been imported fro~ the United States, have been kept in the parks of Lords Pow.Is, Leicester, Hill, and Derby. The Rev. w. D. Fox procured buds from. the two :first-named parks, and he informs me that they certamly differed a little from each other in the shape of.their.bodi~s a~cl in the barred plumage on their wings. These bn·ds hkew1se differed from Lord Hill's stock. Some of the latter kept at Oulton by Sir P. Egerton, though precluded from 38 'Ornamental Poultry,' by tho Rev. E. S. Dixon, 1848, p. 34. J9 Rev. E. S. Dixon, id., p. 35. ~0 Bcchstein, 'Naturgcsch. Deutschlanda,' B. iii., 17931 B. 309. 41 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1852, p. G99. |