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Show Wild Turkey Ranked King of the Woods When Charles the Ninth of France sat down at his w.-ddlng banquet In the year 1570, he was fmliuh!y entirely entire-ly unaware that something was about to happen to him which had never happened ;o at.y other king of France. Perhaps his mother, Catherine of Medici, had knowledge of what was coming, for Catherine was a manag ing sort of woman anj kept a watch ful eye on everything that was done or planned In the royal palace. But chefs are an Independent tribe. In tolerant of Interference with ibeir af fairs, and possibly only the palace chef aud his underlings knew that a rare distinction was about to be con ferred upon their exalted master. History Is silent as to these details The Important fact vouched lor b Charles Luclnn Bonaparte, the French naturalist Is that Charles the Ninth at bis wedding banquet consumed doubtless with great gusto, liberal por tlons of a strnnge new fowl never be fore eaten In France? a large and ex traordlnary and very delicious bird known as a "Cock of the Indies." Thereby Charles the Ninth ot France established a precedent. That "Cock of the Indies" was. as a matter of fact, a turkey. No other French king, probably no other European king, had ever dined on turkey, nnd certainly no African or Asiatic potentate poten-tate had enjoyed that experience. Hence Chnrles the Ninth's wedding banquet may be set down as one of the turning points of history. Then and there the turkey, noblest of his royal race, enme Into his own ns the king of all table birds, tit provender for monnrrhs nnd for presidents. Second to None on Earth, ne Is not only the king of table birds. lie Is also. In his wild state, the king of game birds, certainly the noblest game bird of the Western hemisphere hem-isphere nnd probably unexcelled anywhere any-where on this planet "It has been ' given to hut a few hunters." says ! Dr. William T. Honunlay, director of the New York Zoological park, a great ! sportsman aB well ns a naturalist, "to I seek this bird In Its native forests, j witness Its splendid lllght, and afterward after-ward shoulder a splendid gobbler I weighing from r to .'10 pounds for a 1 ten-mile carry. He who has done this, however, will thcrealler rank the bird ns second to none on earth." To the I naturalist nnd nature lover, nlso, the turkey Is the feathered monarch of the woods, Just as the eagle Is the winged lord of the air. lie Is one of the wildest and In many ways one of j the wisest of all woods creatures, anil a glimpse of him In his wilderness haunts Is an event never to be for gotten. I have seen him many times In the woods, for I am fortunate enough to live In a region where the wild turkey still exists In considerable numbers; hut I have never yet seen him without experiencing that thrill ot delight which only the wildest of wild things can Impart. And so It will be until my woods-roaming days are over Wi'd Gobbler Beautiful Bird The nan who kn-iws only the do mesllc turkey, and who has seen that pompous and nuher toolish swaggerer often In the barny-iru. may find it a little difficult to understand why the sight of a turkey In the woo ls always and invariably makes a red-letter day Let him go hunting wild turkeys either with or without a gun ami lie will understand why. As a matter of fact, the tame tuikey of our barnyard barn-yard und the v. '1,1 turkey ot our woods are two t-:i;ii-elv different birds differing not only in plumage (though In this respect the difference Is slight! but also In form. In bearing. In mentality men-tality and In personality. In the wild gobbler, for all Ids size aud weight, there Is something of a gamecock's sliuinef-s. His form is powerful pow-erful and stalwart, yet beautifully molded. His bearing Is proud and confident ; yet one sees in him always a hair-trigger alertness which accentuates ac-centuates his wlldiiess; and somehow that wildness Is npparent In every line und curve of his body. In the poise of his head. In the glance of his eye. In the springiness of his stride. Ills rich coppery-bronze plumage glows nnd glints In the sun and In certain lights gleams like burnished gold; and when he Is on guard (and It is no easy matter to catch a wild gobbler nap ping), he holds himself splendidly erect so that his tall form seems amazingly tall and that clean thorough bred sllmness which distinguishes him delights the eye of the beholder. There have been times when, fresh from a meeting In the woods with some superb bronze monarch of the sunlit glades. I hnve almost been rendy to agree with old Ben Franklin that the turkey and not the bald eagle should have been chosen ns our national na-tional symbol. Not Match for Fierce Eagle. Almost, but not quite; foi the wild turkey, with nil his stalwart grace and statellness nnd pride of hearing, can not compete with the eagle In those supreme attributes which render the "Bird of Jove" the most Impressive of all the denizens ol the air. The turkeys namo Is ngnlnst him, too. It lacks both majesty and beauty, and to many people It Implies, naturally enough, n Moslem origin. Moreover, familiarity tun often breeds contempt, nnd though the wild turkey Is as far superior to the domestic turkey ns n gamecock Is to a doinlnlcker rooster. II Is the barnyard bird that generally comes to mind when the turkey Is mentioned. The turkey, whether wild or domestic belongs not with the martial mar-tial birds but with the game birds, a much less dashing and aggressive group than the eagles and falcons: und though he Is fairly strong and swift on the wing for short distances, his power of flight Is as nothing com-laired com-laired with that of the great eagle family. As for physical prowess, the largest turkey gobbler, though far outweighing out-weighing the largest eagle, would have no chance in a combat with the latter bird. Not many miles from where this is being written such a combat once took place, though the eagle in this instance was not the bald eagle, our national bird, but a golden eagle. v Tbe turkey was already dead and the eagle was feasting on Its body when a gunner shot the victor. Belongs to New World. Nevertheless, though It is probably Just as well that Franklin did not have ds way. the wild turkey might he regarded as. In some respects at any rate, a logical second choice for the symbol of the United S'ntes; and lumping the wild nnd the domestic forms together for the moment the popularity of the tin key ns a table, delicacy In America and the prom-t prom-t Inence which It assumes at Thanksgiving Thanks-giving and Christmas might well entitle en-title It to be called "Our other National Na-tional Bird." Hence the history and natural history of the turkey constitute consti-tute a subject of pnttlcular Interest, especially In view ol the fact that most Americans know very little nhout this bird which plays a cala part In our gastronomic lives, while a , good deal of what they do know about It Is not true. Perhaps the most idespread error concerning the bird 's the vague Idea shared by thousands of people that the turkey came originally from Turkey, Tur-key, This Is an utterly false notion. The turkeys nre a distinctively New world family and were entirely unknown un-known until the first explorers crossed the Atlantic. Possibly the turkey owes Its misleading name tr the nnblt once prevalent In England of calling every strange and foreign object Turk, Indian, In-dian, nnd so forth; or possibly the English of those times saw in the headgear of this bird a resemhlanco to the headgear worn by the Turks. No one jeally knows how the name originated and most of the suggestions sugges-tions which have been offered are guesswork Another common error Is the notion that tin tame turkey is the descendant of the wild turkey of our woods It Is quite natural to assume that some person or persons In the early days caught some wild turkeys nnd turned them nnd that from these our domestic turkeys nre derived. Like a great ninny other plausible nnd widespread assumptions, however, this Idea Is Incorrect. In-correct. Herbert Ravenel Sass, in American Legion Monthly. |