Note 36 — Chapter VIII · DUCK—GOOSE—PEACOCK—TURKEY—GUINEA-FOWL—CANARY-BIRD—GOLD-FISH—RIVER-BEES—SILK-MOTHS.

‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,’ April 8th, 1856, p. 61. Prof. Baird believes (as quoted in Tegetmeier’s ‘Poultry Book,’ 1866, p. 269) that our turkeys are descended from a West Indian species now extinct. But besides the improbability of a bird having long ago become extinct in these large and luxuriant islands, it appears (as we shall presently see) that the turkey degenerates in India, and this fact indicates that it was not aboriginally an inhabitant of the lowlands of the tropics.