Benjamin Franklin believed that the turkey, not the eagle, should be the bird that symbolizes America. He wrote, in 1784, the following:
"I wish that 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...besides, he is a rank coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him bodily and drives him out of the district...For a truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird."
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