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heads and wings, and playfully rolling over each other in all the wantonness of an unchecked game of romps. This finished, they again seek the leafless trees on which they sat at sunrise, and dress and preen their feathers in its parting rays. Then, as the shades of evening close around, they fly off in pairs, each couple retiring to its own roosting-place, where they repose till dawn.

There is a smaller race of short-tailed parrots (Agapornis), the love-birds as they are called, from the affectionate attachment which exists between the male and female. There certainly are instances to the contrary, but the death of one is generally followed by that of the other. A glass placed at right angles with the perch has been used with success in reconciling the survivor to life, by the delusion produced by its own image.

The Lories,* in all their oriental richness, and the Cockatoos,t with their lofty crests and docile disposition, form two very interesting groups. The latter inhabit the woods of the Indian islands principally. In the former, the bill is comparatively weak; in the latter it is strong and robust. Most of our readers will remember the favourite cockatoo of George the Fourth; the bird was the very pink of politeness.

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Other forms crowd on us, but we are warned. Our eye has just fallen on a pretty drawing from one of the Pompeian arabesques, of a grasshopper in a car, driving a parakeet-true; we have been speaking parrot" more than enough, and must refer those of our readers who are not by this time in a balmy state of oblivion, and who may wish to make their eyes acquainted with the varieties of this beautiful family, to their portraits by Barraband and by Lear, the Reynolds and the Lawrence of the Psittacida.

*Genus Lorius.

+ Subfamily Plyctolophina, Vigors.

TURKEY S.

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-Man, cursed man, on turkeys preys,
And Christmas shortens all our days.
Sometimes with oysters we combine,
Sometimes assist the sav'ry chine,
From the low peasant to the lord
The turkey smokes on every board."

GAY'S FABLES.

MERCY on us! turkey again! We grant the infliction. All the world has supped full of turkey. We are aware that the martyr who reads these lines may have been very recently and very intimately acquainted with the bird plain roasted, boiled, grilled, devilled—aux truffes et à la broche-en daube-as a galantine, as a blanquette, and as a marinade; that he has probably not omitted to amuse himself with the cuisses et ailes à la sauce Robert, and with the ailerons piqués et glacés, en haricots, en fricassée de poulets, à la Sainte-Ménéhoulde, en chipolata ou à la financière, and en matelotte to say nothing of playing with the remains of the goodly fowl served as a hachis à la reine. One word more only on this part of the subject, as advice for the future to neophytes : it is given with all the oracular gravity that distinguishes a high priest of Comus. Quand il est gras et dans la nouveauté, on le sert à la broche, piqué ou bardé. Quand il est vieux, on ne l'emploie que pour daube ou galantine à la gelée. La dinde est plus délicate que le dindon." All this we devoutly admit-to this amiable dictation of Le Cuisinier des Cuisiniers we bow; but when the great gastronomer asserts er cathedrá, that we owe this bird to the Jesuits, qui l'ont apporté de l'Inde en Europe, we, with all humility, but with modest firmness, demur to his natural history. The eloquent and learned author of Tabella cibaria, though he leaves their origin in doubt, says that turkeys were known in Europe before the institution of Loyola's order.

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But whence was the turkey imported into Britain-into Europe --and thence spread over a great portion of the globe?

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qui pensent que les Cocs d'Inde n'ayent ésté cogneuz des anciens sont trompéz. Car Varro, Columelle, et Pline monstrent evidemment qu'ils estoyent de leur temps aussi communs es mestairies Romaines, qu'ils sont maintenant es nostres : lesquels ils nommoyent de nom Grec Meleagrides et de nom Latin Gibberas, &c. Varro dit en ceste sorte, Gibberæ quas Meleagrides Græci appellant, &c. Ceste chose est conforme à ce que Pline en éscrit au vingt-sixièsme chapitre du dixièsme livre de l'histoire naturelle. Meleagrides (dit il) hoc est Gallinarum genus Gibberum variis sparsum plumis, &c. Pourquoy il est facile à prouver que nostre Coc d'Inde est Gibbera Gallina, ou Meleagris." These be bold words: they come, too, from that father of ornithology, Pierre Belon du Mans, and he who wrote them was a man who saw through more than one fable that had passed current down to his time. Moreover, Aldrovandi and others speak, if possible, still more determinedly. But, as we once heard an advocate compendiously say, when hard pressed by a host of adverse cases, which were not very good law-they are all wrong together. Take our word for it, reader, Apicius never tasted a turkey: that excellent bird never graced the Apollo chamber of Lucullus; nor could all the wealth, nor all the power of the Cæsars have placed one on the Imperial board. The Meleagris of the ancients was the guinea-hen of our poultry-"Simple Susan's" guinea-hen.

sexes.

If any one doubt this, let him read the description of Athenæus, and give us his attention for a few minutes. Taking Clitus Milesius, a disciple of Aristotle, as his guide, Athenæus notices the small and naked head, the hard crest surmounting it like a peg or nail, the small gills hanging from the cheeks, the peculiarly spotted plumage, the spurless legs, and the similarity of the * The descriptions of Varrot and Plinyt are equally conclusive. To go into a detail of all the worthies who drew their pens upon each side of this question, which has caused so much ink-shed, would be tedious; the notice of one or two will suffice. "That these birds," says Willughby, "were the Meleagrides of the ancients, as also their Gallina Africanæ, and Numidica guttatæ, Aldrovandus takes much pains to prove. In England they are called Turkeys, because they are thought to have been first brought to us out of Turkey."§ Ray knew better, and, in his Synopsis, indicated the native country of the bird. But the progress of a debate which has long been settled is not very entertaining and those who would wish to see the case well argued are referred to Pennant, who, bringing much learning, and an

:

* Deipn. 655.

Hist. Mund. Lib. x. c. 62.

+ Lib. III. c. 9.
§ Ornithology, p. 158.

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ample knowledge of natural history to the discussion, may be considered as having given the coup de grace to the antiquarian theory. Daines Barrington was the last writer of any note who supported that theory; and though he makes a tolerably good fight, it is, after all, a paradoxical fight, and he seems to be arguing for victory, not truth. The Indian bird mentioned by Ælian was most probably one of the peacocks. The question is now set at rest. The turkey is one of the many good things that we owe to America.

In the "Perfect Description of Virginia," a small pamphlet in quarto (1649)." With the manner how the Emperor Nichotowance came to Sir William Berckley, attended with five petty kings, to doe homage, and bring tribute to King CHARLES. With his solemne protestation, that the sun and moon should lose their lights, before he (or his people in the country) should prove disloyall, but ever to keepe faith and allegiance to King CHARLES;"-it is certified that they (the colonists) have "for poultry, hens, turkeys, ducks, geese, without number;" and in the catalogue of "Beasts, Birds, Fish, and Trees" at the end of the book, we find—" Wilde turkies, some weighing sixtie pound weight." The pamphlet was evidently written to encourage emigration and loyalty, and the writer may have put the weight of his turkeys rather high; but that the wild turkey grows to a large size there is no doubt.

Lawson set out on his voyage to Carolina in 1700. Soon after starting from Charlestown we find the following paragraph :

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Tuesday morning we set towards the Congerees, leaving the Indian guide Scipio,"-not Africanus,-" drunk among the Santee Indians," jolly fellow!" We went ten miles out of our way to head a great swamp, the freshes having filled them all with such great quantities of water, that the usual paths were rendered impassable. We met in our way with an Indian hut, where we were entertained with a fat boil'd goose, venison, racoon, and ground nuts. We made but little stay; about noon we passed by several large savannahs, wherein is curious ranges for cattle, being green all the year; they were plentifully stor❜d with cranes, geese, &c., and the adjacent woods with great flocks of turkeys.' We will follow the worthy Lawson into one of the natural turkey preserves, as he will give the reader some idea of the localities of these birds; nor is the quaint language of the narrative unpleasant:-"Next morning very early, we waded thro' the savannah, the path lying there; and about ten o'clock came to a hunting quarter of a great many Santees: they made us all welcome; showing a great deal of joy at our coming, giving us barbacu'd turkeys, bear's oil, and venison. Here we hired Santee

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Jack (a good hunter, and a well-humour'd fellow), to be our pilot to the Congeree Indians; we gave him a Stroud-water-blew, to make his wife an Indian petticoat, who went with her husband. After two hours' refreshment, we went on, and got that day about twenty miles; we lay by a small swift run of water, which was pav'd at the bottom with a sort of stone much like to Tripoli, and so light that I fancy'd it would precipitate in no stream but where it naturally grew. The weather was very cold, the winds holding northerly. We made ourselves as merry as we could, having a good supper with the scraps of the venison we had given us by the Indians, having killed three teal and a possum; which medley altogether made a curious ragoo.

"This day all of us had a mind to have rested, but the Indian was much against it, alleging, that the place we lay at was not good to hunt in, telling us, if we would go on, by noon he would bring us to a more convenient place; so we moved forwards, and about twelve a clock came to the most amazing prospect I had seen since I had been in Carolina: we travelled by a swamp side, which swamp I believe to be no less than twenty miles over, the other side being as far as I could well discern, there appearing great ridges of mountains, bearing from us W.N.W. One Alp, with a top like

a sugar-loaf, advanced its head above all the rest very considerably : the day was very serene, which gave us the advantage of seeing a long way; these mountains were cloth'd all over with trees, which seem'd to us to be very large timbers.

"At the sight of this fair prospect, we stay'd all night; our Indian going about half an hour before us, had provided three fat turkeys e'er we got up to him.

The swamp I now spoke of is not a miry bog, as others generally are, but you go down to it thro' a steep bank, at the foot of which begins this valley, where you may go dry for perhaps 200 yards, then you meet with a small brook or run of water about two or three feet deep, then dry land for such another space, so another brook thus continuing. The land in this Percoarson, or valley, being extraordinary rich, and the runs of water well stor'd with fowl. It is the head of one of the branches of Santee River; but a farther discovery time would not permit only one thing is very remarkable, there growing all over this swamp, a tall, lofty, bay-tree, but is not the same as in England, these being in their verdure all the winter long; which appears here when you stand on the ridge (where our path lay), as if it were one pleasant green field, and as even as a bowling-green to the eye of the beholder, being hemm'd in on one side with these ledges of vast high mountains.

"Viewing the land here, we found an extraordinary rich black

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