Page 32 - Turkey Book from Meathead

t is often said that Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
preferred the turkey to the eagle as our national bird, but it is not clear whether he was serious.
The notion comes from a letter he wrote to his daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache (1768-1807), on January 26, 1784, two years after the eagle was named the national bird. In the letter he is critical of the eagle's habits and the artwork depicting it, perhaps mocking the fact that it took six years for Congress to choose a national bird. It sounds to us as if Franklin, known for his wit, was exercising it well:
“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen 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 perch'd on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for
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