Of all the epic nomenclature failures in the history of “the New World” – think Columbus’s blithe dubbing of the Lucayan , Taíno , and Araw...
Of all the epic nomenclature failures in the history of “the New World” – think Columbus’s blithe dubbing of the Lucayan, Taíno, and Arawak peoples he confronted in 1492 as “Indians” – no case has been more bizarrely bungled than the turkey.
The genus Meleagris comprises two species: meleagris gallopavo (the wild turkey, which ranges from Mexico to Canada, and was first domesticated thousands of years ago by the ancient Mayans) and meleagris ocellata (the ocellated turkey, which persists mainly in the forests of Yucatan).
These wattled waddlers – they fly as irregularly as peacocks – are so intrinsic to the American landscape that Benjamin Franklin argued forcefully they should replace the Bald Eagle (“a Bird of bad moral Character”) as the US national symbol: “For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native. He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”
But losing out to the raptor is only one debacle in the annals of this hapless fowl. The story gets much worse, because no creature has ever been so mistakenly named in every language of the world,...
