Of the North American turkeys the scientist recognizes four varieties. The Meleagris sylvestris of the eastern states, except Florida, the Meleagris sylvestris osceola of Florida, the Meleagris sylvestris elliotti of the Rio Grande district of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico, and the Meleagris gallopavo of Arizona, New Mexico, part of Colorado, and west and south through the larger portion of old Mexico. It is of this last species that I shall write.
| WILD TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo) |
THE MEXICAN WILD TURKEY
(Meleagris gallopavo)
Outside of the progenitors of our common barnyard fowl, there is no wild bird that mankind has domesticated whose distribution in its domestic state has become so wide as that of the wild turkey, and none have been so highly prized as an article of food. It is from the Mexican wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, that all of our domestic turkeys have descended. First captured in Mexico by the early settlers of that country, they were taken to the West Indies and there domesticated as early as 1527, for Oviedo, in his "Natural History of the Indias," speaks of the wild turkey having been taken from Mexico to the islands and there being bred in a domestic state. From the West Indies they were taken to Spain, France and England, and again brought back to America as domestic fowls. In 1541 they must have been scarce yet in England, for in an edict promulgated by Cranmer in that year, the "turkey cocke" was named as one of "the greater fowles," and which "an ecclesiastic was to have but one in a dishe." By 1573, however, they must have become quite plentiful, for in that year Tusser mentions them as the most approved "Christmas husbandlie fare."
Inasmuch as there were no settlements of either English, French or Spanish in America north of Mexico until 1584, or in that section of the country inhabited by the eastern species of wild turkey until sixty years after the turkey is known to have been introduced into England, the common belief that the eastern species (Meleagris sylvestris) was the foundation of the domestic turkey is clearly an error; but the ornithologist does not find it necessary to consult history to determine the origin of the domestic turkey. That distinguishing feature of the Mexican wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), the broad, light sub-terminal of the rump feathers, is so strong that even after three and a half centuries of domestication, changes in color through selection in breeding, and possibly crossing to some extent with the eastern and Florida species, those markings, peculiar to it alone, are unmistakably present even in the lightest-colored varieties.
As a game bird the turkey has but few equals. Like most of game birds they are comparatively tame and unsuspicious until after they have been hunted, and learned that of all animals man is their greatest foe and most to be dreaded, for whenever he is within sight he is within the range of his instruments of destruction. I have seen the Mexican wild turkey constantly running or flushing in front of us from morning till night as we traveled through their country for days. They showed but little fear, for while we killed all we could eat, we were constantly traveling, so that those that had been introduced to the white man's methods of destroying were left behind us, and those in front of us had yet the lesson to learn; but when the wild turkey has been hunted a little it becomes about as wary, cunning and resourceful as any bird that flies.
The Mexican wild turkey is the largest of the race, and has been, and is yet, the most plentiful. They are strictly mountain dwellers, not often found in altitudes of less than twenty-five hundred to three thousand feet, and more frequently from four to six thousand, and even up to eight thousand feet or more. They are strictly timber dwellers, usually, if not always, living in the pine forests, for I can not call to mind a single instance where I have found them except where pines of some variety were the principal trees. In size, individuals vary a good deal. So, also, will the general average be found to vary as much as ten pounds in different localities. Generally the higher their habitat the larger the birds, some of the old gobblers reaching forty pounds if not more. I remember killing one in the Sierra Madres of northern Mexico that I carried about three miles into camp over a very rough country. By the time I got him there I was willing to bet my last "silver 'dobe" that he weighed a ton. I have also killed some very large ones in the San Francisco mountains of Arizona.