[35] ‘The Field,’ May 6th, 1871. I am much indebted to Mr. Canning for information with respect to his birds.
[36] ‘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. But besides the improbability of a bird having long ago become extinct in these large and luxuriant islands, it appears (as we shall presently see) that the turkey degenerates in India, and this fact indicates that it was not aboriginally an inhabitant of the lowlands of the tropics.
[37] Audubon’s ‘Ornithological Biography,’ vol. i., 1831, pp. 4-13; and ‘Naturalist’s Library,’ vol. xiv., Birds, p. 138.
[38] F. Michaux, ‘Travels in N. America,’ 1802, Eng. translat., p. 217.
[39] ‘Ornamental Poetry,’ by the Rev. E. S. Dixon, 1848, p. 34.
[40] Bechstein, ‘Naturgesch. Deutschlands,’ B. iii., 1793, s. 309.
[41] Mr. Bartlett in ‘Land and Water,’ Oct. 31st, 1868, p. 233; and Mr. Tegetmeier in the ‘Field,’ July 17th, 1869, p. 46.
[42] ‘Gardener’s Chronicle,’ 1852, p. 699.
[43] E. Blyth, in ‘Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,’ 1847, vol. xx. p. 391.
[44] Roulin makes this remark in ‘Mém. de divers Savans, l’Acad. des Sciences,’ tom. vi., 1835, p. 349. Mr. Hill, of Spanish Town, in a letter to me, describes five varieties of the Guinea fowl in Jamaica. I have seen singular pale-coloured varieties imported from Barbadoes and Demerara.