Girls Eating A Turkey Leg

Turkeys are classed in the taxonomic order of Galliformes. Within this order they are relatives of the family/subfamily Tetraonidae (grouse). Turkeys have a distinctive fleshy wattle that hangs from the underside of the beak, and a fleshy protuberance that hangs from the top of its beak called a snood. With wingspans of 1.5–1.8 metres (4.9–5.9 ft), the turkeys are by far the largest birds in the open forests in which they live. As with many galliform species, the female (hen) is smaller and is much less colorful than the male (tom or gobbler).
History and naming
When Europeans first encountered turkeys in the America Continent they incorrectly identified the birds as a type of guineafowl (Numididae), also known as Turkey fowl (or Turkey hen and Turkey cock) from their importation to Central Europe through Turkey, and that name, shortened to just the name of the country, stuck as the name of the bird. The confusion between these kinds of birds from related but different families is also reflected in the scientific name for the turkey genus: meleagris (μελεαγρίς) is Greek for guineafowl. The domesticated turkey is attributed to Aztec agriculture, which addressed one subspecies of Meleagris gallopavo local to the present day states of Jalisco and Guerrero. And add to the confusion about where turkeys actually came from. The many references to India seen in common names go back to a combination of two factors: first, the genuine belief that the newly-discovered Americas were in fact a part of Asia, and second, the tendency during that time to attribute exotic animals and foods to a place that symbolized far-off, exotic lands. The latter is reflected in terms like "Muscovy Duck" (which is from South America, not Muscovy). This was a major reason why the name Turkey fowl stuck to Meleagris rather than to the guinea fowl (Numida meleagris): the Ottoman Empire represented the exotic East.