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El Paso herald., November 23, 1912, Week-End Edition, Feature and Society Section, Image 18
About El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931
Image provided by: University of North Texas; Denton, TX
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BSBeaSB! liI V- E r jrvi" JL1J-4 vs A Y W"k iL A. 99 ge?yqBgJMm I I Jf) Women are often heard to say a Electric Iron." They speak of worth having. raost fondly, "My it as something an Iron , JJjlM ' "Sp and you will soon know the reason why women 'speak so endearingly of; their , electric irons the irons that not only save them so many weary steps and-so much care and trouble, but also enable them to do such satisfactory ironings. Now is the time to take advantage of remarkable offer. . THE GENERAL ELECTRIC FLAl'IRON retails everywhere for$00, ; -' We have just received a shipment of the latest model 1912 G. E. irons and -as long as they last: will sell them for $3.50 with cord and stand complete. , This iron is one of the best on the market, and if you have an Electric Iron already remem ber it is not too early to lay aside one for a Christmas present. r" A General EI jf --:.Jgy f Late. Ba6aJra Qfg ectr ron for Ei raso ziectri Electric Building nway . Phone 2323 r w H w SB! BENE BACHE'S BUDGET MPORT FOWL : THE THANKSG TO IMPROVE UOTAMUJAR, BUT VALUABLE, "OCELLATED" BIRDS TO BE BROUGHT PROM YUCATAN. Domesticated Turkey Was First Served as a Table Del ioaey at the Wedding of Charles IX, in 1570 The Spaniards, When They Invaded Mexico, Found Moctezuma Had Flocks of Fowls. WASHINGTON, D. C, Nov. 23. For the Improvement of our Thanksgiving bird, the "ocel lated" turkey is to be Imported from Yucatan. Used for crossing with the domesticated fowl, it ia expected Mar kedly to enhance the beauty of the ani mal and the flavor of th meat. One should understand, to start with, that this Tariety of turkey which has never been reduced to Iomestication hitherto Is one of the most beautiful of feathered creatures. It is of about the. same size as our own iurkeyt but of a more brilliant eoimation, and with "eyes" (hence the name bestowed upon the species) sprinkled over its tail like those which adorn the tail of a pea cock. When the Spaniards invaded Mexico, early in the 16th century, they found there domestjeated turkeys the birds being kept and bred by Montezuma to feed the jaguars, pumas, and other carnivores in the wonderful zoological garden which that monarch maintained as an appanage of his royal state. They supposed them to be a kind of pea cock, and as such described them in the letters they wrote to folks at home. But they never saw the "ocellated" turkey, else the likeness to the peacock would have struck them much more forcibly. As everybody knows, the turkey be longs exclusively to the new world. There are three distinct species: (1) the wild turkey" of the "United States, (x) the turkey native to Mexico (which, cwlng to a curious series of happenings, has become our farm fowl, distin guished by the white meat of its breast), and (3) the "ocettated," or "eyed" turkey, native to Yucatan and adjacent portion of Guatemala and. British Honduras. Beautiful Plumage. The "ocellated" turkey is a bird of much more varied and beautiful plum age than either of the others. It is, in deed, rivalled in these respects by few feathered creatures. When one says that its bare head and neck are deep blue, covered with bright red wart-like excrescences, that its back and rump are blue tipped with red, that its wing coverts are deep red in color, and that its bill, legs and feet are likewise red all brilliant metallic hues the descrip- Revolv ers Every reliable make is earned in stock. See us for good goods at lower prices than elsewhere. MAIL ORDERS GIVEN CAREFUL ATTENTION. Shelton-Payne Arms Co. tion is not quite complete, bright yel lows and other tints being incidentally" introduced. For many centuries this gorgeous fowl has been hunted by the aborigines of the regions in which it is found, and, in consequence, it has become extra ordinarily shy so much so, Indeed, that according to the testimony of natural ists few birds are so difficult to ap proach. Yet it is not, like our own wild turkey, a denizen of dense forests, but rather a frequenter of the edges of clearings, and of such places as tha borders of corn fields. Its habits in a general way, however, are much like those of our wild turkey. It roosts in trees, and builds its nest in a fashion similar to that of its North American congener. One of its pecu liarities is a song which is like that of no other bird, and which is described as resembling the rapid pecking of a dis tant woodpecker. Largest of Pheasants. All turkeys are handsome birds a circumstance not surprising when ono considers their ornithological relation ship. For this interesting and palatable fowl is in truth a pheasant the largest (at all events the bulkiest) of all the pheasants. The peacock, is a pheasant also, but does not nearly ap proach the turkey in respect or weignt. It is, moreover, much more closely re lated to our farm yard chickens than to the turkev. Chickens are true pheasants all of them being descended from a species native to Southern India, and which to day is found wild is that part et the world. It Is the Oallas banktra a bird resembling in a striking degree the do mesticated variety familiarly known as the "red game.'' The much esteemed guinea fowl, too, is a pheasant, and is more closely related to the turkey ihin any other existing bird. Thus it will be understood why accidental crosses between turkeys and puinea fowls once in a while occur, producing a queer sort of hybrid. Whether or not this hybrid is fertile, i. e., capable of per petuating itself, does not iwm tc be a settled question. Served an Meat in 1570. To go back to the early Spaniards, it is a matter of history th..l they- took seme of Montezuma's tame turjeeys back with them to Spain, where they were bred. If tradition li"S iof, the first occasion on which the great American bird was served as a '.able delicac in Europe was at the wedding of Charles DC in the year 1570. Evidently the merits of the fowl gained quick appreciate :.i. ioi bi-i'o e long it spread over the farm yards of all Europe. At fir3t It was popularly supposed to coma from tee Turkish dominions (those lieins a little known and more or less 'iysterici:s part of the world whence anything previously unheard of might naturally be thought to have emanated), and hem e the naoie liv which even to the present dav U IS lulled. DiHtiBCt From Wild Turkey. From Europe it was brought to the l'nited States as a farm vard brern. and in thi vv.iy it came about that th Mi'M'.'ii t,:.l with th' hit--m'ated hri .!'t ' - tl'i'i-.. -ti - ii ! i oi ,,. r tinct from the wild turkey of our terri tory, which has dark meat on the breast As for the "ocellated" turkey, it is, as already explained, very mark edly different from either, and the modi fications whicn tne introduction of its blood into the farm yard strain may produce are entirely open to conject ure. No existing animal has been modified by breeding to anything like such an extent as the species of Bast Indian pheasant which today, in its altered and wonderfully-varied corras, we call the chicken. But the giant Mexican pheasant known as the turkey has un dergone some striking changes inciden tal to its domestication in this country. It has been split up, as one might say, into no fewer tharf six recognized vari eties the "bronze." the -butt,' the "slate," the "black," the "Narragan sett," and the "white." These differ markedly in plumage, of course. But the "white," is nothing more nor less than an albino type, perpetuated, like the white rabbit from the white mouse, by selection through a series of gen erations. ' j Turkey raisers are accustomed to kaep their heaviest fowls from. year t6 year for breeding purposes, and by this sim ple method oi selection the size of the bird has been much increased. Thus the turkey weighing 44 pounds is noth ing very, extraordinary. But, if one would see giant turkeys, one should visit Fishers island, off the western tip of Rhode Island, where the greatest and most successful turkey farm in the world i maintained. The Island is. as one might say, an artificial wilderness of 4.000 acres, over which thousands of the birds roam practically wild, no shelter of 'any kind being- provided for them. They thrive amazingly under such treatment, and some specimens reach a weight of nearly 56 pounds. InfUNlon of AVI Id Blood. What we know in this country as the "wild turkey" is a species confined to the eastern and southern United States. The other, or Mexican species ' (which is our domesticated fowl) extends its range over parts of Texas. New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona, "n respect of plumage there is no very marked dif ference between the two. The tips of the tail-feathers of the Mexican turkey in the wild state), and the feathers overlying the base of the tail, are cream-white. The same feathers in our wild turkey are always brown. The vigor of our domesticated turkey stock is maintained by frequent infus ions of wild blood the two species crossing readily. Sometimes wild gob blers are secured for this purpose by hatching them from eggs found in the woods. Though at first they are diffi cult to handle, they soon become fairly tame. But it often happens that a fulr snmn wild gobbler will come out of the woods of his own accord, and make himself at home with a flock of tame turkcvN easily driving off or killing the domesticated gobbler to whom they properly belong. Nowadays there is a larjie demand fi'!' a hat ,i!-i- called "linkev bi oiler. ' th.it is to ,;. ..ini' tmki's w' inline keys are notoriously hard to raise,, and many farmers are glad to sell them at this stage of their growth) 1b prefer ence to keeping them until they are mature, and taking the incidental chance of losing them. Dealers say that if farmers cauld find a way to force turkeys as they do chickens, they could get almost any price for them in the summer time from wealthy customers. , Demand for GuIhch Fowls. The turkey's nearest relative, the guinea-fowl, is gaining a steadily aug mented appreciation as a table bird ap propriate to the Thanksgiving season. It has a game flavor strongly resem bling that of the partridge, and some people are very fond or Its eggs, which command a high price in th market. This bird, originally fetched from Af rica, has never become more than half domesticated, and to thiB day it roams wild in flocks over much of the island of Jamaica. There is money in breed ing and rearing guinea-fowls, and our own Department of Agriculture is ad vising American farmers to go into the business on a reasonably extensive scale. If a fertile cross between this species and the turkey can be obtained, a new and valuable kind of poultry will contribute to the profit of the working agriculturist and to the appe tite of the bon vivant RENE BACHE. 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BELL 1054. The Two-Republics Lifelnsurance Company EL PASO, TEXAS A. KRAKADER, President. Good men wanted to sell policies that guarantee protection. C.R. RUSSELL, Supt. of Agents. LOUIS ST. J. THOMAS, Sectj. and Gt-n'i Mgr. i 1 1 1 r u i ni i h i - i.t'ii.i- - K . i. !. uiv. i' U'i i"i til' :ii. J.'. Ui.,, l : Use Herald Want Ads. Use Herald Want Ads.