Franklin, a joker, did say that turkeys wouldn’t hesitate to “invade his farm yard with a red coat on.” At the same time, he did not agree that the bald eagle was the best choice of bird, saying in the same letter, "For my own part, I wish 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."