Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TUR'KEY, or TUR'KY, n. [As this fowl was not brought from Turkey, it would be more correct to write the name turky, as it is written in the Encyclopedia Britannica.]

A large gallinaceous fowl, the Meleagris gallopavo. It is a native of America, and its flesh furnishes most delicious food. Wild turkies abound in the forests of America, and domestic turkies are bred in other countries, as well as in America. There is another species, the Meleagris ocellata, found about the Bay of Honduras.