Wild turkeys might have been on the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving table but we don't know for sure

Wild turkeys were more noble than eagles, according to Benjamin Franklin!

"I wish the 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 is a much more respectable Bird and withal a true original Native of North America"

Benjamin Franklin

The turkey has become the most well known of Thanksgiving symbols.

The 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 is bigger and has brighter and more colorful plumage than the female, called a hen. She is generally smaller and drab in color.

The 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, and a tuft of bristles like a beard projecting downward from its chest.

The turkey was originally domesticated in Mexico, and was brought to Europe in the 16th century. Since then, turkeys have been 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.

Turkey might not have been served at the Pilgrim's first thanksgiving, but in a book by the Pilgrim's Governor Bradford, he mentions the turkeys. In a letter sent to England, another Pilgrim describes how the governor sent "four men out fowling" returning with turkeys, ducks and geese.

Here's an assignment from Chico Chihuahua:

See if you can learn when the wild turkey was first domesticated by mis primos (my cousins) in Mexico and report it back to your parents and teachers!



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