1/8. The Wild Turkey, the Bald Eagle, and the Illogical Nature of Bird Names — Steven Moss — Moss introduces the Wild Turkey, discussing its successful reestablishment in New England and its domestication origin in southern Mexico. Moss critiques the turkey's nomenclature as fundamentally illogical, derived from historical confusion involving exotic trade routes through Asia Minor. Moss examines the Bald Eagle as a scavenger species that symbolizes predatory power and dominance. Moss notes that Benjamin Franklin reportedly argued the Wild Turkey should have been designated America's national bird instead. Moss further documents how the eagle was subsequently appropriated as a sinister political symbol by authoritarian regimes, most infamously by Nazi Germany.
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