Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/62

 TURKEY of this square, is remarkable chiefly for its size, and for its large library and interesting armory. In the centre of the square is the old palace of the early dukes of Savoy, re- stored in 1718 for the mother of Victor Ama- deus II. and since called palazzo Madama. On the N. W. tower of the palace is the royal ob- servatory. Adjoining the same square are the military academy and the theatre. The piazza di San Carlo is almost surrounded by arcades. The oldest church is the cathedral, the finest is that of San Filippo. A Protestant church was opened in 1853. The academy of sciences con- tains the pinacoteca or royal picture gallery, with celebrated paintings, and the museums of antiquity and natural history. The university, founded early in the 15th century and reorgan- ized in the 17th, has a magnificent building with a library of 200,000 volumes, increased in 1875 by Oavour's library, bequeathed to it by the marquis Ainardo Cavour. He also left 3,000,000 lire in real estate for the charity hospital, one of the largest of the numerous charitable institutions. A fine campo santo was opened in 1829. Despite the variable and occasionally rough climate, the mortality has lately averaged only 27'2 in 1,000, smaller than in other large towns of Italy. The chief export is silk. The principal manufactures are silk goods, jewelry, furniture, pianofortes, and carriages. Turin was originally settled by the Ligurian tribe of the Taurini, whence the name. It was conquered by Hannibal, and under Augustus became a Koman colony un- der the name of Augusta Taurinorum. In the 6th century it was the capital of a Lombard duchy; in the 8th Charlemagne made it the capital of the marquisate of Susa ; and in the llth century it became that of the house of Savoy. The French held the city at various periods, but their army under La Feuillade and Marsin was signally defeated here by the im- perialists under Prince Eugene, Sept. 7, 1706. They occupied it in December, 1798, and Su- varoff in May, 1799 ; and the French again held it from 1800 to 1814, when it was re- stored to the Savoy dynasty. It was the cap- ital of the kingdom of Sardinia till 1860, and subsequently of Italy till May, 1865. TURKEY (meleagria, Linn.), a well known gallinaceous bird, the type of the family melea- gridce, of the group alecteromorphce of Huxley. The bill is moderate and strong, shorter than the head, compressed on the sides, with culmen arched, and upper mandible overhanging the lower ; the cere is elongated into a loose, pen- dulous, round, fleshy caruncle ; head and upper neck bare, with only a few scattered hairs, and carunculated ; base of lower mandible some- times wattled ; a tuft of long, black bristles on the breast, largest in the males ; wing short and rounded, the first four quills graduated, and the fifth and sixth the longest ; tail broad and rounded, pendent during repose, but capa- ble of being raised and extended like a fan ; tarsi robust, longer than middle toe, covered in front with broad, divided scales, and armed with a short obtuse spur ; anterior toes united at base by a membrane, the inner the shortest, the posterior moderate and elevated ; claws short and slightly curved. All the species in the wild state are indigenous to North Amer- ica. The common wild turkey (M. gallopavo, Linn.) is about 3$ ft. long and 5 ft. in extent of wings, -weighing from 15 to 20 Ibs. ; the naked skin of the bead and neck is livid blue, and the excrescences purplish red ; the general color is copper bronze, with green and metal- lic reflections, each feather with a velvet-black margin; quills brown, closely barred with white ; tail feathers chestnut, narrowjy barred with black, and the tip with a very wide sub- terminal black bar ; the female is smaller and less brilliant, without spurs, often without bristles on the breast, and with a smaller fleshy process above the base of the bill. It has a crop and gizzard, and an intestine four times the length of the body ; the cartilaginous tissue of the stomach is less hard than that of the common fowl. The full plumage is attained at the third year; the females usually weigh Wild Turkey (Melcagris gallopavo). about 9 Ibs. They fly in flocks of many hun- dreds, frequenting woods by day, feeding on acorns, all kinds of grain, buds, berries, fruits, nuts, grass, insects, and even young frogs ; they make considerable journeys in search of food, flying and swimming across rivers a mile wide; though their flight is heavy, they are able to reach with ease the tops of the high- est trees ; they are so strong as not.to be easily held when slightly wounded; they perch at night on trees. Quitting the woods in Sep- tember, they come into the more open and cultivated districts, where they are killed in great numbers; they were formerly abundant in the middle, southern, and western states, but are now rare except in thinly settled regions, and have never been found west of the Rocky mountains. Although the turkey was exclu- sively an inhabitant of North America in its wild state, the earlier naturalists supposed it to be a native of Africa and the East Indies, and its common name is said to have arisen from the belief that it originated in Turkey ; it was carried to England in the early part of the 16th century by William Strickland, lieutenant to Sebastian Cabot. Since that time it has been acclimated in most parts of the world, but the