6 :8 T U R K E Y .
'
The hen begins to lay early in the fpring, and will often produce
a great number of eggs, which are white, marked with
reddifh or yellow -fpots, or rather freckles. -She fits well, and is
careful of her young, of which, in this climate, (Ire will often
have from fourteen to feventeen for one brood, but fcarce ever
fits more than once in a feafon*, except allured thereto by putting
frelh eggs under her as foon as the firft fet are hatched; for
as (he is a clofe fitter, will willingly remain two months on the
neft; though this conduft, as may be fuppofed, is faid greatly
to injure the bird.
Turkies are bred in quantities in fome of the northern counties
of England, and are driven up to London towards autump for fale,
in flocks of feveral hundreds ; which are colledled from the fe-
veral cottages about Norfolk, Suffolk, and neighbouring counties,
the inhabitants of which think it well worth their while to attend
carefully to them, by making thefe birds a part of their family,
during the breeding-feafon. It is pleafing to fee with what facility
the drivers manage them, by means of a bit of red rag
faftened to the end of a flick 5 which, from their antipathy to it as
a colour, afts to the fame effeft as a fcourge to a quadruped. It
is needlefs to fay further of the general manners than the above;
whoever may be defirous of perufing more, may be fully fatisfied
with that of Mr. Pennant in the Phil. TranJ. : but if he willies
a longer detail, the account at large in the Hiß. des of. may be
, with propriety recommended.
* Said to have three broods in a year in the Weß Indies.
Meleagris
T U R K E Y .
Meleagris Gallnpavo, Lin. Syft. i. p. 268. 1. (3.— Frifeb. t. 122.
LeDindon, Brif. orn. i. p. 158. 1. pi. 16.— Buf. oif. ii. p. 132. pi. 3.—•
Y'i. tnl. 97.
Turkey, Raii Syn. p. 51. A. 3.—Wilt. orn. p. 159. pi. 27.— Albin. iii. pi. 35.
Br. Zool. i. N° 97.— Phil. 'i'ranf. vol. lxxii. p. 67.
By. Muf Lem. Muf.
N D E R this head may be comprehended all the varieties
which have arifen from domeftication. The moft common
is dark grey, inclining to black, or barred dulky white and
black.
There is alfo a beautiful variety of a fine deep copper-colour,
with the greater quills pure white; the tail of a dirty white; and
is, when old, a moft beautiful bird.
A variety with a pure white plumage * is alfo now not unfrequent,
and appears very beautiful; it was once efteemed as a
great rarity, and the breed fuppofed originally to have arifen in
Holland f .
In the Leverian Mufeum is alfo a common Turkey, with a large
tuft of feathers on its head, much refembling one figured by
Hlbin
* The packet of long hairs on the break excepted, which is black throughout
all the varieties, and is as confpicuous in this as any of the others.
f Phil. Tranf.—This probably is not a late variety, as a pair of white Turkies
are reprefented going into Noah's ark, among the reft, in a painting of BaJJan §.
—Barringt. Mijc,
I Vol. ii. pi. 35.— Brif. orn. ii. p. 161.
§ Which of the two Bojj'ani is not faid ; one of them died in the year 1 540, the other in 1594.
Meleagris
679
i.
Van. A.
DOMESTIC T.
D escription.
COPPER-COLOURED.
WHITE.
CRESTED.