The turkey is a large North American bird in the family Phasianidae. Meleagris gallopavo is the common turkey, native to vast swaths of the United States and part of Mexico, while the lesser known ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) lives only in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Males of both turkey species have a distinctive fleshy wattle or protuberance that hangs from the top of the beak (called a snood). They are among the largest birds in their ranges. As in many galliformes, the male is larger and much more colorful than the female.
In American popular culture, the turkey is commonly associated with the November Thanksgiving ritual, which commemorates the survival of the first English settlers in Massachusetts through the winter of 1621, when this bird was one of their primary foodstuffs. In the 18th century, scientist Benjamin Franklin developed a respect for the bird's hardiness and endurance while using it as a test animal, in electric experiments which were invariable fatal to the turkey. Franklin lobbied for the turkey to be adopted as the American national symbol, but it lost out to the Bald Eagle.
Turkey in Atlantis[]
The turkey was a Terranovan species of edible bird. In the early 18th century, turkeys were imported to Atlantis, and by 1761 they were a common sight there.
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