28 NOV 2013 by ideonexus

 Turkey as a Better Symbol for America

Others object to the Bald Eagle, as looking too much like a Dindon, or Turkey. 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 perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk [Osprey]; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Supp...
  1  notes

Benjamin Franklin argues that the turkey is a better mascot than the bald eagle, for it is a more noble bird. The behavior he describes in the eagle, which steals fish from osprey, has been confirmed independently from naturalists we have spoken to.