112 THE GAME BIRDS 
123. 0 WEED TRY RIGA 
Meleagris gallopavo. 
There are two species of this bird in North 
America, else I should deem it unnecessary to 
give any description. The wild turkey proper 
was formerly distributed generally over 
Eastern North America, but it is now found 
only in those portions but little visited by 
man, and not even there are they, by any 
means, common. ‘The general color of this 
bird is black, with a coppery lustre, each 
feather being margined with velvety black. 
The tail feathers are dark chestnut, with. 
numerous bars of black. This same color 
characterizes the sides and coverts. The 
southern species, which is the original of the 
domesticated turkey, has the feathers at base 
of tail, on the back, chestnut, tipped with 
whitish, and the tips of the tail feathers are 
whitish. In both species the head is bare of 
feathers, colored blue, with reddish excres- 
cences. The forehead is furnished with a 
depending, fleshy, cone-shaped process, which 
is erected in moments of excitement. There 
is also a hairy tuft upon the breast. Length 
dto4feet. Extent 4}to5 feet andover. Eyes 
brown. Bill brown. Legs dark and reddish- 
purple. 
This monarch of game birds, ike similar 
representatives of human bipeds, is rapidly 
disappearing before the march of civilization 
