The Turkey.
It seems fairly well established by Mr. Gould,[[470]] that the turkey, in accordance with the history of its first introduction, is descended from a wild Mexican species (Meleagris Mexicana) which had been already domesticated by the natives before the 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 may 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 pleasure."[[471]] Several accounts have likewise been published of young birds, reared in 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 the 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. Michaux[[472]] suspected in 1802 that the common domestic turkey was not descended from the United States species alone, but likewise from a southern form, and he went so far as to believe that English and French
turkeys differed from having different proportions of the blood of the two parent-forms.
English turkeys are smaller than either wild form. They have not varied in any great degree; but there are some breeds which can be distinguished—as Norfolks, Suffolks, Whites, and Copper-coloured (or Cambridge), all of which, if precluded from crossing with other breeds, propagate their kind truly. Of these kinds, the most distinct is the small, hardy, dull-black Norfolk turkey, of which the chickens are black, with occasionally white patches about the head. The other breeds scarcely differ except in colour, and their chickens are generally mottled all over with brownish-grey.[[473]] The tuft of hair on the breast, which is proper to the male alone, occasionally appears on the breast of the domesticated female.[[474]] The inferior tail-coverts vary in number, and according to a German superstition the hen lays as many eggs as the cock has feathers of this kind.[[475]] In Holland there was formerly, according to Temminck, a beautiful buff-yellow breed, furnished with an ample white topknot. Mr. Wilmot has described[[476]] a white turkey-cock with a crest formed of "feathers about four inches long, with bare quills, and a tuft of soft white down growing at the end." Many of the young birds whilst young inherited this kind of crest, but afterwards it either fell off or was pecked out by the other birds. This is an interesting case, as with care a new breed might probably have been formed; and a topknot of this nature would have been to a certain extent analogous to that borne by the males in several allied genera, such as Euplocomus, Lophophorus, and Pavo.
Wild turkeys, believed in every instance to have been imported from the United States, have been kept in the parks of Lords Powis, Leicester, Hill, and Derby. The Rev. W. D. Fox procured birds from the two first-named parks, and he informs me that they certainly differed a little from each other in the shape of their bodies and in the barred plumage on their wings. These birds likewise differed from Lord Hill's stock. Some of the latter kept at Oulton by Sir P. Egerton, though precluded from
crossing with common turkeys, occasionally produced much paler-coloured birds, and one that was almost white, but not an albino. These half-wild turkeys in thus slightly differing from each other present an analogous case with the wild cattle kept in the several British parks. We must suppose that the differences have resulted from the prevention of free intercrossing between birds ranging over a wide area, and from the changed conditions to which they have been exposed in England. In India the climate has apparently wrought a still greater change in the turkey, for it is described by Mr. Blyth[[477]] as being much degenerated in size, "utterly incapable of rising on the wing," of a black colour, and "with the long pendulous appendages over the beak enormously developed."
The Guinea Fowl.
The domesticated guinea-fowl is now believed by naturalists to be descended from the Numida ptilorhynca, which inhabits very hot, and, in parts, extremely arid districts in Eastern Africa; consequently it has been exposed in this country to extremely different conditions of life. Nevertheless it has hardly varied at all, except in the plumage being either paler or darker-coloured. It is a singular fact that this bird varies more in colour in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main, under a hot though humid climate, than in Europe.[[478]] The guinea-fowl has become thoroughly feral in Jamaica and in St. Domingo,[[479]] and has diminished in size; the legs are black, whereas the legs of the aboriginal African bird are said to be grey. This small change is worth notice on account of the often-repeated statement that all feral animals invariably revert in every character to their original type.
The Canary Bird.