MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 343 



Mflcngris /era Vieiix., Gale'rie des Ois., II, 10, pi. x, 1324. 



Meleagris mexicana Gould, Proc. Lond. Zool. Soc, 1856, 61. — Baird, Birds 



N. Am., 618, 1858. — Coopkr & Baird, Orn. Cab, I, 523, 1870. 

 Oafhpnvo sjjlvestris, Nora Anc/liie Bay, Synopsis, 51, 1713. — LeConte, Proc 



Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., IX, 179, 1857. 



Common and even quite numerous in those sections where it is not 

 too much hunted. Mr. Boardman informs me that very fat male birds 

 often weigh twenty-five to twenty-eight pounds, but that the average 

 weight of the males is eighteen to twenty pounds, and of the females 

 6ix to ten pounds. 



The Origin of the Domestic Turkey. 



Although it had been for a long time previously vaguely conjectured 

 that the domestic turkey did not originate from the common wild turkey of 

 North America, it was not until about 1856 that it was fully asserted 

 that such was not its origin. In a paper road before the Zoological So- 

 ciety of London, in April, 185G, Mr. John Gould, the well-known English 

 ornithologist, assigned this bird to the list of those domesticated animals 

 whose origin had become involved in obscurity. He refers, however, to 

 the fact of its known introduction into Europe from Mexico about 1524, 

 and to the belief, shared by all naturalists from Linne up to that time, that 

 the domesticated turkey r was derived from the wild turkey of North 

 America. He also states that, " on account of the great differences which 

 are met with among our domestic turkeys, and the circumstance that the 

 wild turkeys recently imported from North America not readily associating 

 or pairing with them," he had for some years entertained the opinion that 

 the wild turkey of the United States was not the original of the domestic 

 turkey. He also at this time described a single specimen of a turkey from 

 Mexico as belonging to a species distinct from the wild turkey of the 

 United States, to which he gave the name of Meleagris mexicana. It 

 differed, however, but slightly from the northern bird, mainly in having 

 more white on the upper tail coverts. Although he claimed that it 

 was of larger size, his measurements indicate it to be only barely 

 above the average, and considerably smaller than the larger speci- 

 mens from the Northern States. In considering it as distinct from the 

 common wild turkey, he seems to have been greatly influenced by the lo- 

 cality whence his specimen came ; as he states that he hardly thinks it prob- 

 able that the common turkey, " authors to the contrary, notwithstanding," 

 ranges very far into Mexico, since it is found, he says, along the southern 

 boundary of Canada, which is nearly two thousand miles from Mexico. 

 He deems it unlikely that a bird inhabiting " the cold regions of Canada 



