Domestic Animals / History and description of the horse, mule, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and farm dogs; with directions for their management, breeding, crossing, rearing, feeding, and preparation for a profitable market; also their diseases and remedies. Together with full directions for the management of the dairy.

by Richard Lamb Allen

THE TURKEY.

This bird was unknown to the civilized world till the discovery of this Continent. It was found here both in its wild and domesticated state; and still occupies the whole range of the western hemisphere, though the wild turkey disappears as the country becomes settled. The wild is larger than the domesticated bird, sometimes weighing over 30 lbs. dressed. The color of the male is generally a greenish brown, approaching to black, and of a rich, changeable, metallic lustre. The hen is marked somewhat like the cock, but with duller hues. Domestication through successive generations dims the brilliancy of their plumage, and lessens their size and hardiness. It also produces a variety of colors, though they are mostly of a black, buff, pure white, or speckled.

They give evidence of the comparative recency of their domestication, in the instinct which frequently impels the cock to brood and take care of the young. Nothing is more common than for the male bird to supply the place of the hen, when any accident befalls her, and to bring up a family of young chicks with an equally instinctive regard for their helplessness and safety.

The flesh of this bird, both wild and tame, is exceedingly delicate and palatable; and though not possessing the high game flavor of some of the smaller wild-fowl, and especially of the aquatic, as the canvass-back duck, &c., it exceeds them in its digestibility and healthfulness. The turkey is useful principally for its flesh, as it seldom lays over a nest-full of eggs in one season, when they brood on these and bring up their young. If full-fed, and their first eggs are withdrawn from them, they frequently lay a second time.