Of
all the Thanksgiving symbols the Turkey has become the most well known. The
wild turkey is native to northern Mexico and the eastern United States.
 The
turkey has brown features with buff-colored feathers on the tips of the wing
and on the tail. The male turkey is called a
Tom
and, as with most birds, is bigger and has brighter and more colorful
plumage. The female is called a
Hen
and is generally smaller and drab in color. The Tom turkey has a long wattle
(a fleshy, wrinkled, brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or
throat)at
the base of its bill and additional wattles on the neck, as well as a
prominent tuft of bristles resembling a beard projecting downward from its
chest.
The
turkey was originally domesticated in Mexico, and was brought into Europe
early in the 16th century. Since that time, turkeys have been extensively
raised because of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs. Some of the
common breeds of turkey in the United States are the Bronze, Narragansett,
White Holland, and Bourbon Red.
Though
there is no real evidence that turkey was served at the Pilgrim's first
thanksgiving, in a book written by the Pilgrim's Governor Bradford he does
make mention of wild turkeys. In a letter sent to England, another Pilgrim
describes how the governor sent "four men out fowling" returning with
turkeys, ducks and geese.
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Benjamin Franklin
"I wish the Bald Eagle had not
been chosen as the representative of our country: he is a Bird of bad
moral character: like those among Men who live by Sharping and Robbing,
he is generally poor and very often lousy.
The Turkey is a much more
respectable Bird and withal a true original Native of North America"
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