Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-22
THE GREAT AMERICAN BIRD.
How 1t Originated, and Why It is
Called a Turkey
From the Chicago Inter Ocean

rrorl the tHlcaSo inter Ocean
E. Oustalet, in a recent bulletin Of the
French national society of accima tization,
tells how the turkey came to bear the name
of a country from which il did not come
and to be no part of the heraldic insignia
of the lands which gave it to mankind
For the turkey is unquestionably an Amer
lean bird, and not Turkish, Indian or Asiatic
in any way. Those who believe that they
recognize the turkey among the fowls men
toned or described in Old Latin works are
entirely at fault. What is there spoken of
Is the guinea hen or peacock All the do
mesticated varieties of turkey are derived
from the wild species formerly plentiful in
the Ohio and Missouri valleys and still
found from Kansas to Yucatan The an
Gent Mexieans had begun to domesticate
the birds CorteZ found them in Monte
yuma gardens. The Spanish pioneers of
the new world took them for a kind of
peacock. When they began to reach Spain.
about 1920, they were called Indian pea
cocks The impression 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. Authorization of the
French names then given them, "poules
dInde" 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 England about
1924. 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 DIFF
fculties 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 Is
sued against extravaganza at clerical feasts
by Archbishop Cranmer In 154I prohibited
the serving of more than one crane swan
or turkey" However, turkeys soon became
relatively cheap. The expense accounts OF
feast given In 1885 show that the turkeys
cost only four shillings each, while cranes
and swans cost 10 shillirgs each.
BY 1873 they were no longer luxury of
the rich. Farmers were accustomed to
ferve them at Christmas. and in some dis
! tricts they were so numerous as to provoke
complaint of their ravages In the hon ant,
pea fields. And book of directions for
rural work published at Paris In 1873 con-
tains rules for their breeding and rearing
which show accurate knowledge of their
peculiarities. Benjamin Franklin, we be-
lieve 1t was, wrote protest against TAX
ing the eagle as the American national
emblem. Others have suggested the turkey
as a better emblem. because dlstinctively
American and the most useful and beauti-
full large bird contributed by the Americans
to mankind.
1t Is too late to make any change in our
heraldic insignia. Yet the turkey has a
distinct place in American life, such as II
has in that of no other nation. The cook
ing and eating of 1t have come to be a
OF Thanksgiving, a peculiarly American ma
tional festival So the turkey. though mis-
named. is not without special honor In It's
own country.