Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/62

TURKEY 44 TTJIIMERIC TURKEY, in ornithology, any species of the genus Meleagris. They are the largest of the game birds, and for that reason have been domesticated for a great length of time. All the species have the head naked, with wattles or folds of bright naked skin, which be- comes much more brilliant when the bird is excited or angry, and a curious tuft of long hair on the breast. The plumage is always more or less metallic. The common turkey, Meleagris gallopavo is brownish-yellow on the upper parts of the body, and each feather has a broad resplendent black edge, hinder portions of the black feathers and tail coverts dark reddish-brown, striped with green and black; breast yellowish-brown, dark- est at sides; belly and sides brownish- gray; rump feathers pale black, with a darker edge; fore parts of head and throat pale sky blue, warts on face AFRICAN WATER TURKEY bright red. They often weigh from 20 to 60 pounds, and measure at least three feet in height; but the wild birds are much finer than the domesticated race, v.'hich, contrary to the general rule, has degenerated under the care of man. They are gregarious, and inhabit the E. por- tion of North America, feeding on grass, grain, insects, fruit, etc. The domesti- cated birds may be seen in every farm yard, and large numbers are bred and fattened. The ocellated turkey, M. ocel- lata, a very fine and brilliantly colored species, having eyelike mai'kings on the tail feathers and upper wing coverts, is found in Honduras and Yucatan, The other species M. mexicmia, from Central America, Mexico, and the table-lands of the Rocky Mountains, closely resembles M. gallopavo, and is popularly known as the Mexican turkey. TURKEY BUZZARD, or TURKEY VULTURE, the Rhinogryphus {Cathar- tes) aura. Like the other vultures, they feed on carrion, but their habits vary somewhat with locality; in the southern United States they act as scavengers in the towns; in Guatemala and throughout South America they are not seen in flocks, but occur in pairs only in the forests. TURKISH BATH, a popular form of hot air bath, in which the patient, after being subjected for some little time to a considerable temperature, is vigorously rubbed down, and is then conducted through a series of cooling chambers till he has regained his normal temperature. All secretions and accretions are thus completely removed from the skin, which is left free to perform its functions healthily. TURKOMANS, a nomadic Tartar people occupying a territory stretching between the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Aral, the khanates of Khiva and Bokhara, Afghanistan, and Persia. They do not form a single nation, but are divided into numerous tribes or clans, TURKS, an important and widespread family of the human race; found from the banks of the Lena through central Asia and Asia Minor to the Eiiropean shores of the Bosporus and the -.^gean. Formerly classed among the Turanian peoples, it is now more usual to say that they are of the Mongolo-Tartar ethnological 2:roup, and speak languages of the Ural-Altaic family. To them be- long at the present day Yakuts, Siberian Tartars, Kirghizes, Uzbegs, Turkomans, Karakalpaks, Kazan Tartars, and Dun- gans, as well as the Ottoman Turks; linguistically the Bashkirs and Tchu- washes fall under the same head. The existing Turkish peoples are all Moslems, except the Yakuts, and mostly nomadic. They have given ruling families or races to China, Persia, India, Syria, Egypt, and the empire of the Caliphs, TURMERIC, the rhizome or root- stock usually having pointed cylindrical branches, of Curcvma longa (natural order Zingiberaccfe) . This species of Curcuma is a handsome herbaceous plant, the flowering stem of which has long, narrow, sheathing leaves, and above these a leafy spike of yellow flowers. It is cultivated all over India, but it is also grown in the East Indian islands, China and the Fijis, The tubers, which are yellowish externally, yield a