TURKEY, an abbreviation for turkey-cock and turkey-hen, a large domestic gallinaceous bird, so called from the mistaken idea that it came from Turkey. They (Meleagris) are all Ameri can, and were not introduced into Europe before 153o. The northern (M. gallopavo) is extinct in the settled parts of Canada and the north-eastern parts of the United States. It is a beautiful bird, with bright, metallic gloss on its plumage. The southern species (M. mexicana, Gould), now rare, differs in hav ing its tail-coverts and quills tipped with white. On the borders of Guatemala and British Honduras is a third species, M. ocellata, whose plumage vies in splendour with that of the peacock, while the bare skin of the head is blue, studded with orange warts. The turkeys form the subfamily Meleagrinae of the Phasianidae and extend back to the Miocene, when they were present in Colorado.
The turkey (the South American M. mexicana), domesticated by the peoples of Mexico and Peru, was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards soon after the discovery of America. From Europe, most probably, the earliest domesticated turkeys were taken to North America by colonists from Europe and little admixture of wild blood (M. gallopavo) occurred until after the middle of the last century when livestock began to be improved.
By 1865, the original Mexican stock was known in England as the Cambridge Bronze, and there were also the Black Norfolks, Whites and Fawns (buffs). Of these the Cambridge Bronze was the largest, the Black Norfolks the most popular.
Later there arose a demand for a turkey of greater size and so there was imported from North America the American Bronze, with less white and more brilliant colouring. These were bred with the Cambridge and with the general turkey population of the continent. But the great size of the American Bronze is unsuited to the day of small incomes and small families. The marketable bird is one of to-15 lb. and the older European varieties have come into their own again. The White turkey, called for reasons unknown the Austrian White in Europe, the White Holland in America, is exceedingly popular, and Blacks and Fawns are also kept. Infrequently the other colour varieties are imported from America into Europe, the Slate, the Narragansett and the Bourbon Red. All these pigments are ingredients of the Bronze colouration and the breeder, by isolating and forming new combi nations of them, has produced the different varieties.