WILD TURKEY... MALE (PLATE 1)

Meleagris gallopavo Flora: cane, "Arundinaria gigantea" or "A. tecta" JW 36 very good impression, a loss at upper left affecting part of the issue number, plate number trimmed away at right, a mended tear in the lower edge, running into the grass at left, some soiling sheet 38 by 25 1/2 in.; 965 by 648 mm. Based on a composition probably painted at Beech Woods Plantation, West Feliciana parish, Louisiana, in 1825. Benjamin Franklin once said that he wished the turkey, a true original Native of America, had been chosen as America's national symbol rather than the eagle. Audubon wrote: "The great size and beauty of the Wild Turkey, its value as a delicate and highly prized article of food, and the circumstance of its being the origin of the domestic race now generally dispersed over both continents, render it one of the most interesting of the birds indigenous to the United States of America.".