Eagle Vs. Turkey

[Adam's Apple]

Question submitted to our local newspaper’s Q&A column:

Is it true that Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird, or is this just another urban legend?

Answer:

Letter from Benjamin Franklin to his daughter Sarah dated January 26, 1784:

“I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing-hawk; and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes it from him. With all this injustice, he is never in good case; but, like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem….of America. For in truth, the turkey is, in comparison, a much more respectable bird and withal a true original native of America. He is, besides, (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on.”

Maybe if Franklin had had his way, American lads would undertake difficult tasks to earn the coveted rank of Turkey Scout. Our failed attempt to rescue American hostages from Iran in 1980 would be remembered as Operation Turkey Claw, and the Army’s famous 101st Airborne Division would be known as “The Screaming Turkeys.”

 

[musicman]

Question submitted to our local newspaper’s Q&A column:

Is it true that Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird, or is this just another urban legend?

Answer:

Letter from Benjamin Franklin to his daughter Sarah dated January 26, 1784:

“I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing-hawk; and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes it from him. With all this injustice, he is never in good case; but, like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem….of America. For in truth, the turkey is, in comparison, a much more respectable bird and withal a true original native of America. He is, besides, (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on.”

Maybe if Franklin had had his way, American lads would undertake difficult tasks to earn the coveted rank of Turkey Scout. Our failed attempt to rescue American hostages from Iran in 1980 would be remembered as Operation Turkey Claw, and the Army’s famous 101st Airborne Division would be known as “The Screaming Turkeys.”

The more I learn about the irrepressible Mr. Franklin, the more amazing and amusing I find him. But, I have to say, I'm with you on this one, Adam's Apple. I'm glad he didn't get his way on the national bird.

 

[Adam's Apple]

This aroused my interest as to why the eagle was chosen as the emblem of our country. Will have to do some research on this, unless someone on the board already knows and can save me the effort. What I am reading into what Franklin wrote to his daughter was that he believed the eagle to be a predator and a coward, neither of which applies to the United States as a people or a country. So that leaves me wondering what the reasons were for selecting the eagle.

 

[Zhukov]

Probably because it looks cool. The Founding Fathers were after all just men.

 

[Zhukov]

I personally would have preferred an owl.1,2

(which incidentally would have been funny in WW2 as in Japanese culture the owl is a symbol of death and seeing one is a bad omen)

 

[dilloduck]

Probably because it looks cool. The Founding Fathers were after all just men.

Or they noticed a few eagles flying around while they were chowing down on a turkey leg. :teeth:

 

[Zhukov]

Or they noticed a few eagles flying around while they were chowing down on a turkey leg. :teeth:

Exactly, you can't eat the national bird. Hence turkey (no 'the') was not going to be the national bird.

 

[UsaPride]

This is all I could find.

The American Bald Eagle


The bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States since 1782, when it was placed with outspread wings on the Great Seal of our country. It appears in many government institutions and on official documents, making it the most pictured bird in all of America. The eagle appears on the president’s flag, the mace of the House of Representatives, military insignia, and billions of one-dollar bills.

The bald eagle first appeared as an American symbol on a Massachusetts copper cent coined in 1776. Since then it has appeared on the reverse side of many U.S. coins, notably the silver dollar, halfdollar and quarter, as well as the gold coins which were christened the eagle, half eagle, quarter eagle, and double eagle.

For six years, the members of Congress held a bitter dispute over what the national emblem should be. It wasn’t until 1789 that the bald eagle was finally chosen to represent the new nation.

One of the most prominent opponents to the bald eagle’s status was Benjamin Franklin. In a letter to a friend, Franklin wrote:

I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird and withal a true, original native of America.

But not all of Congress shared Franklin ’s sentiments. Bald eagles, like other eagles worldwide, had been seen by many as symbols of strength, courage, freedom and immortality for generations. And, unlike other eagles, the bald eagle was indigenous only to North America.

Some eagles have become notable in American history. “Old Abe,” the mascot of a Wisconsin regiment during the Civil War, was a constant target of enemy riflemen, but survived 42 battle engagements relatively unscathed.

Today, the American bald eagle is protected under the National Emblem Act of 1940. Although once plentiful throughout the continental United States, the bald eagle population has greatly declined in recent times. Farmers and fishermen have killed many eagles for getting too close to their poultry or fishing nets; game keepers have captured them for falconry; and pesticides have killed many eagles. Most of the bald eagle population can now be found in northern regions of North America and Florida breeding sanctuaries.

President John F. Kennedy wrote to the Audubon Society:

The Founding Fathers made an appropriate choice when they selected the bald eagle as the emblem of the nation. The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird aptly symbolizes the strength and freedom of America. But as latter-day citizens we shall fail our trust if we permit the eagle to disappear.

http://www1.va.gov/opa/feature/celebrate/eagle.htm

 

[Zhukov]

Exactly. It looks cool.

 

[Zhukov]

Some eagles have become notable in American history. “Old Abe,” the mascot of a Wisconsin regiment during the Civil War, was a constant target of enemy riflemen, but survived 42 battle engagements relatively unscathed.

I wonder what that means.

 

[musicman]

I wonder what that means.

For the eagle's sake, I hope it doesn't mean "in the same sense that Bill Clinton was relatively truthful". He'd definitely be flying on half a wing!

 

[Adam's Apple]

Thanks, USAPride. Congress did have some pretty good reasons to select the bald eagle, after all.

 

[UsaPride]

Thanks, USAPride.

Anytime, sweets!!

 

[ScreamingEagle]

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

---Alfred Tennyson


The Eagle

Bird of the broad and sweeping wing
Thy home is high in heaven,
Where wide the storms their banners fling,
And the tempest clouds are driven.
Thy throne is on the mountain top;
Thy fields---the boundless air;
And hoary peaks that proudly prop
The skies, thy dwellings are.

And where was then thy fearless flight?
"O'er the dark, mysterious sea,
To lands that caught the setting light,
The cradle of liberty.
There on the silent and lonely shore,
For ages I watched alone,
And the world, in its darkness, asked no more
Where the glorious bird had flown.

"But then came a bold and hardy few,
And they breasted the unknown wave;
I caught afar the wandering crew,
And I knew they were high and brave.
I wheeled around the welcome bark,
As it sought the desolate shore;
And up to heaven, like a joyous lark,
My quivering pinions bore.

"And now that bold and hardy few
Are a nation wide and strong;
And danger and doubt I have led them through,
And they worship me in song;
And over their bright and glancing arms
On field, and lake, and sea,
With an eye that fires, and a spell that charms,
I guide them to victory."

---James Gates Percival


The Eagle of Freedom

0, that Eagle of Freedom! when cloud upon cloud
Swathed the sky of my own native land with a shroud,
When lightnings gleamed fiercely, and thunderbolts rung,
How proud to the tempest those pinions were flung!
Though the wild blast of battle rushed fierce through the air
With darkness and dread, still the eagle was there;
Unquailing, still speeding, his swift flight was on,
Till rainbow of peace crowned the victory won.

0, that Eagle of Freedom! age dims not his eye,
He has seen earth's mortality spring, bloom, and die!
He has seen the strong nations rise, flourish, and fall,
He mocks at Time's changes, he triumphs o'er all;
He has seen our own land with forests o'erspread,
He sees it with sunshine and joy on its head;
And his presence will bless this his own chosen clime,
Till the Archangel's fiat is set upon time.

---Alfred B. Street.


The American Eagle

Bird of Columbia! well art thou
An emblem of our native land;
With unblenched front and noble brow,
Among the nations doomed to stand;
Proud, like her mighty mountain woods;
Like her own rivers wandering free;
And sending forth from hills and floods
The joyous shout of liberty!

Like thee, majestic bird! like thee,
She stands in unbought majesty,
With spreading wings, untired and strong,
That dares a soaring far and long,
That mounts aloft, nor looks below
And will not quail, though tempests blow.

The admiration of earth,
In grand simplicity she stands;
Like thee, the storms beheld her birth,
And she was nursed by ragged hands;
But, pasted the fierce and furious war,
Her rising fame new glory brings,
For kings and nobles come from far
To seek the shelter of her wings.
And like thee, rider of the cloud,
She mounts the heavens, serene and proud,
Great in her pure and noble fame,
Great in her spotless champion's name,
And destined in her day to be
Mighty as Rome, more nobly free.

---C. W. Thompson

 

[ScreamingEagle]

SOAR WITH THE EAGLES

There's an old fable that talks about a man who found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eagle hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken.

He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet in the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked. "That's the eagle, the king of the birds," said his neighbor. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth-- we're chickens."

So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was.

How sad when we who are children of the King live as chickens when we could fly with the eagles.

Anonymous

 

[sitarro]

I personally would have preferred an owl.1,2

(which incidentally would have been funny in WW2 as in Japanese culture the owl is a symbol of death and seeing one is a bad omen)

I gotta like that idea zhuk .

 

[sitarro]

Exactly. It looks cool.

There is no other bird except maybe a Peregrin Falcon in a haulin ass stoop that stops you dead in your tracks and forces you to look in awe as a Bald Eagle flying free in the wild . I have seen a lot of them around the country and they never fail to send a chill down my spine and a smile on my face . I'm sure Night Train has seen a few up north.
I still want to go to the Chilkat reserve during the Salmon runs to watch and photograph the gathering of Bald Eagles .Check out this site.

.http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/units/eagleprv.htm

 

[fuzzykitten99]

I wouldn't want the turkey as the national symbol. A fat (and tasty) bird that can't even really fly. And who would want a country to help defend against evil, whose national bird is as graceful, and majestic as a spider on rollerskates.

When you hear a turkey call...it SOUNDS goofy. Hear an eagle screech, and you get a shiver up your spine (at least I do).

How threatening is a Turkey? The most they can do is run at their food. Eagles can spot their prey from high up, swoop down and grab it in 1 quick move. Eagles can crush your arm with their strong talons. Turkeys can...peck you a lot.

The eagle is one badass bird. The turkey...well...is just a little too docile (ok, wussy) to strike fear into the hearts of enemies.

 

[freeandfun1]

There is no other bird except maybe a Peregrine Falcon in a haulin ass stoop that stops you dead in your tracks and forces you to look in awe as a Bald Eagle flying free in the wild . I have seen a lot of them around the country and they never fail to send a chill down my spine and a smile on my face . I'm sure Night Train has seen a few up north.
I still want to go to the Chilkat reserve during the Salmon runs to watch and photograph the gathering of Bald Eagles .Check out this site.

.http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/units/eagleprv.htm

Back in April of 1991, my wife and I spent two weeks in Big Bend National Park and did a lot of hiking. During one of our hikes we spotted a Peregrine Falcon up on a high ridge. The Rangers had told us where to go and sure enough, there they were ,they were beautiful.

I've heard that since then, the numbers have dropped off significantly due to a long drought in the area.

I had just returned from the ME and the Rangers told us of a lot of neat and out of the way places to go. Like their own little hot springs tucked off a main trail and in the middle of cat-tails. It wasn't on a map, but they told me and my wife where it was so we could have a night there. It was awesome. There were candles all over as apparently, this was the secret little hide-away of the Rangers and some of the guides in the area but they didn't tell the locals about it. It was so funny, right off a main trail and behind a chained fence that said, "danger, do not enter". lol

 

[sitarro]

Back in April of 1991, my wife and I spent two weeks in Big Bend National Park and did a lot of hiking. During one of our hikes we spotted a Peregrine Falcon up on a high ridge. The Rangers had told us where to go and sure enough, there they were ,they were beautiful.

I've heard that since then, the numbers have dropped off significantly due to a long drought in the area.

I had just returned from the ME and the Rangers told us of a lot of neat and out of the way places to go. Like their own little hot springs tucked off a main trail and in the middle of cat-tails. It wasn't on a map, but they told me and my wife where it was so we could have a night there. It was awesome. There were candles all over as apparently, this was the secret little hide-away of the Rangers and some of the guides in the area but they didn't tell the locals about it. It was so funny, right off a main trail and behind a chained fence that said, "danger, do not enter". lol

Wow Free , those rangers are a super resource, it's great to find ones that are so willing to share with you .I have driven by Big Bend but never had a chance to really explore it , the photographs I've seen are beautiful . It looks like it would be perfect habitat for Peregrins . I lived in Denver when they did the Peregrin release downtown . Out of the first five I think only two made it back a couple years later . They continued the release of more but I lost track of what happened when I left .They started that program because there were wild ones that had moved into large downtown areas and were nesting on high rise window ledges . They had hopes of slowing down the pigeon population but I don't think it turned out that well.
I worked with a bird rehab group for a few years when I lived in Louisiana .I handled and cared for Hawks , Owls , ducks , Herons and even a Roseate Spoonbill , my avatar was a Great Horned Owl that we were able to release named Hooter(so original).He was not happy with me shooting his portait . When I moved to Denver I met an incredible woman named Ingrid that ran a large rehab for all types of birds .Her Eagle cage was huge , walking inside with 10 Bald and Golden Eagles was humbling . One flew over us while we were in there and it was pretty scary , 7 ft wing span and huge talons . She had a Peregrin that would see her when she would come around the corner with food and would go nuts . The Air Force Academy donated quail for her to eat . She would catch the carcus in one foot and rip the head off immediately and then start defeathering . She had a lot of birds(mostly birds of prey) at her rehab at any given time and her release rate was amazing , somewhere around 50 percent .This was 10 years ago so I don't know if she is still around or not .
If you like the Peregrins , check out the Gyrfalcon . . . bigger and even more badass . I believe the white falcon that you always see associated with The AirForce Academy is a Gyr , very fine. The Falcon is perfect to represent the Air Force .
I agree that the turkey is very crafty and hard to sneak up on but not a very good symbol for a nation . The Bald Eagle is perfect , it's distinctive markings which only come from age and maturity , an extremely skillfull fisherman (bird), soaring capability , tremendous power that can also be gentle with their offspring and "don't take no shit" attitude make it the best choice for the USA symbol.