The copper era and Morenci leader., 1922-11-24
THE FESTIVE TURKEY
DOMESTIC SPECIES OF TURKEY
 HAD ORIGIN THERE
Thanksgiving Bird, So We'll and Fa vorably Known Today, Never of
 the Wild Species

At this time of the year when the feasting holidays are here, almost everyone thinks of turkey, which also took an important part in the first Thanksgiving of the Puritans, the founders of Thanksgiving as we know it today. Little is known of the early history of the domestic turkey. Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries seem to have been ignorant about it, and to have regarded it as the guineafowl or pintado of the ancients, mistake which was not cleared up until the middle of the last century, says a writer in the New York Sun.
 The name it now bears, and which it received in England where it is reputed to have been introduced in 1541, was given it from the supposi- tion that it came originally from Turkey. As far back as 1873 we read of it as having been the Christ mas fare of the sturdy British yeo- marry.
 Came From Mexican Fowl
 Audubon, one of the early pioneers of American ornithology, supposed our common barnyard turkey to have originated in the wild bird so prev alent in the eastern half of the United States. But it has always been a matter of surprise to naturalists that the latter did not assimilate by tn- terbreeding and reversion. more in- timately in color and habits to the domestic form. No suspicion, until recently, appears to have been en- tertained that the two birds might belong to different species.
 Our common wild turkey, once so plentiful in Pennsylvania and New York, is now restricted to the more eastern and southern portions of the United States, while in the parts of
 Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona, thence stretching southward along the eastern slope of Mexico, there exists another form, essential ly different, which by way of dis tinction, has been popularly called the Mexican turkey It is from this species, and not from the other, as has been enormously supposed, that the domestic fowl has been derived.
 Many Differences Seen
 Between the wild bird of eastern North America and the Mexican and typical barnyard fowls there are diff ferences which must be apparent to the most superficial observer. The eXtremities of the tail feathers as | well as the feathers overlying the base of the tail are in the latter creamy or fulvous white, while in the former they are of a decided chestnut brown color. Other char | acteristics exist, apparent to the orn- ithologist.
 The difficulty experienced in estab- fishing a cross between our wild and tame birds. shows that they are not as closely related as one would sup. pose. Did a near kindship exist, in- terbreeding would more easily be accomplished. With the Mexican turkey, matters are otherwise. That | a relationship does exist between the domestic bird and the latter there can be no question, as specimens of the naturalized species are often met with which are nearly the counter l part of it's Mexican progenitor, diff | fering only in the greater develop
 nent of the fatty appendages of the head and neck, differences which may be accounted for as the effects of the influences to which the birds
 have been subjected by man. No | well-authenticated instance of similar Tef0TSIOHS to our once IdHlllldr east ern bird have been known to oc- | cur, which would necessarily have been the case had they been so closely related as was once main | tained.
 Amrica's Own Day
 Thanksgiving is particularly our own holiday. It originated here and no other continent than this has it. ] Except for the Thanksgiving days | of the United States and Canada l there is in all the earth no official | occasion for returning thanks to | Providence by the people as a people | irrespective of sect. Christmas and New Years are celebrated wherever the cross and memorial days are ob- served in many lands; but the only | national Thanksgiving day Is ours.