The introduction of the turkey as a Christmas dish dates from the early time of the importation of that bird into Europe, namely, about 1550. It is already spoken of in connection with Christmas fare in 1570. The “turkey-cock,” as its full name was, is an American bird, and was brought originally from Mexico to Europe, though it is possible that the more northern American species may have been also introduced by the navigator, Jean Cabot. There is a very gorgeous turkey-cock of iridescent bright blue and green, with orange-red warts on his head and neck, found in Honduras. But he has never been acclimatised. He is on view in the Natural History Museum. The turkey belongs to the pheasant family, and is compared by old writers to the peacock, and also to the guinea-fowl (_Numida meleagris_ of ornithologists). Indeed, there was great confusion when the turkey first arrived between it and the guinea-fowl, and it appears to be owing to this mixing up of the two birds that the American bird was called a turkey-cock, since the guinea-fowl is an African bird, and came into the hands of Europeans through Mussulman traders or “Turks.” So far did the confusion go that the great Linnæus applied the Latin name _Meleagris_, which was that of the guinea-fowl, to the “turkey” of America! Some people think that the turkey-cock established his misleading name by his cry, which they say is represented by the words “Turk-turk-turk.” Probably the turkey-cock, though an American bird, was imported by traders who were called “Turkey merchants” because their chief business was with the Levantine and Morocco ports. Another mistake or vagueness as to the native home of the turkey was hit upon by the French, who called it the _Poule d’Inde_, whence their modern name for it, _Dindon_; and the same error is found in an old German name for it, _Kalkuttisch Hün_ (from Calicut, on the Malabar coast of India, where the turkey was introduced from America in the seventeenth century, and has flourished ever since). The Swedish name for the turkey is _Kalcon_, and is only a modification of this old German name. Probably few animals or birds have been so persistently misrepresented by the names given to them as the American bird which we call the turkey. Our farmyard names for him are far better. In Scotland they call him the “Bubbly-jock,” which vividly suggests his airs and graces, whilst in Suffolk we call him a “Gobble-cock.” I know an old farmhouse near Woodbridge, in Suffolk, which bears the delightful name of “Gobblecock Hall.” “The squire of Gobblecock Hall” would have furnished Randolph Caldecott with inspiration for a Christmas picture story; and so, indeed, would the country round the “Hall,” with its vast sandy tract, ten miles long, known as Hollesley Heath, ending on the seashore near Orford Castle.