[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
WAS originally an inhabitant of America, from whence he was brought to Europe by some jesuit missionaries, which accounts for his being called a jesuit in some parts of the continent. Except the tuft on the head, which he does not share with the Peacock, and his plumage which is very different from that of the latter, in many particulars he is very like him. The general colour is brown and black; and they have about the head, especially the cock, naked and tuberonis lumps of flesh of a bright red colour. A long fleshy appendage depends from the base of the upper mandible, and seems to be lengthened and shortened at pleasure. The hen lays from fifteen to twenty eggs which are whitish and freckled. The chickens are very tender and require great care and attentive nursing before they are able to seek their food. In the county of Norfolk the breading of Turkeys, which is there a considerable branch of commerce, is brought to such a perfection that they are the largest in this island, weighing upwards of twenty pounds each; and in the East Indies they generally weigh upward of fifty. They are supposed to have a natural antipathy against red colour, which, if so, must be owing to its resemblance to light or fire.
