Ben Blend, aged 10, of Dallas, Texas for his question:

How did the turkey get its name?

Most of us have eaten turkey at Thanksgiving, Christmas and maybe New Year's. Our appetite for the tender meat is satisfied for the time being. So we can put down that drumstick and pause to wonder about the name of the delicious bird. How come an all American bird has a n Old World name? How come a turkey is called a turkey?

The word experts give us two possible explanations. Chances are you have heard a turkeys s voice. When feeling upset or very talkative he makes a gobble‑gobble noise. Some people call him a gobbler. But he also carries on quieter conversations with his friends and family. This noise sounds like turc‑turc‑tore. Some say this is how the talkative fellow got his name. He is the turc‑turcy fellow the turkey.

Another explanation says he is really named after the country, Turkey. If, so it was because of a lot of confusion. At first people in the new world confused him with the polka dotted guinea fowl. The guinea fowl's name Is also confusing. He got it because people thought the plump table bird was a native of New Guinea.. True, some of the fat fellows were taken to Europe from New Guinea. But its native home was originally Africa.

The guinea fowl was a popular table bird way back in the days of ancient Rome. Centuries later, some of them were taken to western Europe from Turkey For a time they were called turkey cocks because people thought their native home was Turkey. Into all this confusion, the all‑American turkey bird was taken to Europe,. He was plump and he was an excellent table bird. We cannot blame the people for confusing him with the turkey cock Guinea faun. The big Thanksgiving bird was given the same name as his Polka Dots from Africa.

Strange to say, the people who named him were not so wrong as we might think. True, he had never even visited the land of Turkey. But he was a very distant relative of the plump polka dotted guinea fowl. These birds both belong to the family of Galliformes, Their name comes from the Latin word for chicken. Pheasants, partridges  and grouse are also Galliformes.  The peacock is the glamor boy of the family. The lowly chicken is not glamorous, but she is important enough to lend her Latin name to the whole family.

At one time there were wild turkeys in North America from New England to Mexico. The pilgrims, of course, fed on wild Thanksgiving turkeys, The Indians of Mexico had tamed and fed on them long before. The Spaniards took some of these plump birds home with them to Spain. There they improved the breed. Later, these Spanish American turkeys were returned to the Now World. But they were all descended from turkeys that originated in America.  For the turkey, wild or tame, is an all‑American bird.