About the Library

Wild Turkey, plate I, and Great American Hen & Young, plate VI

The wild turkey is a highly recognizable, symbolic North American bird. John James Audubon admired it so much that he chose this large ground-dwelling bird for the first plate in Birds of America. In fact, one was not enough: on plate VI, he featured a female wild turkey surrounded by her young.

The male wild turkey has a snood (the characteristic fleshy appendage that grows over the beak), a wattle (the fleshy bumpy skin that hangs from the neck) and iridescent plumage. He is looking back as he walks through tall cane grasses. Plate VI depicts a female wild turkey leading her brood of down-covered chicks through a grassy field.

The wild turkey’s scientific name is Meleagris gallopavo, a name that suggests a struggle to identify this bird: meleagris means guineafowl, gallus means rooster (or chicken) and pavo means peafowl.

In Ornithological Biography, which provides details about the species included in Birds of America, Audubon describes the wild turkey as “one of the most interesting of the birds indigenous to the United States of America.”* With a length of 4 feet, 1 inch (124.5 cm), and wingspan of 5 feet and 8 inches (173 cm), he describes the wild turkey in plate I as “a fine specimen.”**

In the 19^th century, overhunting and loss of habitat greatly reduced wild turkey populations. In many areas, including Southern Ontario and Quebec, they had become locally extinct by the early 20^th century. Wild turkey populations began to thrive again with the success of 1980s measures to reestablish them. Milder winters have also increased survival rates. Today, it is not uncommon to encounter these omnivorous birds in search of food in suburban areas.

Details plate I

• This is plate I (or 1) from the collection, and was the first plate subscribers to the series would have received. It is part of set number 1. This was also the first plate of the original bound four-volume collection.
• This large painting in portrait orientation measures 96.9 cm high and 64.7 cm wide.
• The captions are partly trimmed on the Library’s copy. In other intact collections, they read: “Wild Turkey. Meleagris gallopavo. Linn, Male. American Cane. Miegia microsperma,” and “Engraved by W.H. Lizars Edin^r. Retouched by R. Havell Jun^r.”

Details plate VI

• This is plate VI (or 6) from the collection. It is the first plate of set number 2.
• This large painting has a landscape orientation, and measures 96.7 cm long and 64.9 cm high.
• It was printed and coloured on paper with the watermark “J. Whatman 1836.”
• The captions are missing from the Library’s plate. In some other intact collections, the captions read: “Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, Linn., Female and Young,” and “Coloured by R. Havell Sen^r. Engraved by W.H. Lizars Edin^r. Retouched by R. Havell Jun^r.”

* Audubon, John James, 1831, Ornithological Biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, volume 1, page 1.

** Audubon, John James, 1831, Ornithological Biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, volume 1, page 17.