402 NORTH AilLKICAX BIKDS. 



Faotly MELEAGRID^. — The Tukkeys. 



Char. Bill moderate ; the nasal fo:>sii; bare. Head and neck without feathers, but 

 with scattered hairs, and more or less caruuculated. An extensible fleshy process on the 

 forehead, but no development of the bone. Tarsus armed with spurs in the male. Hind 

 toe elevated. Tail nearly as long as the wing, truncate, of moi-e than twelve feathers. 



The family Meleagridce, or Turkeys, as at present known, is entirely con- 

 fined to North and Middle America, and represented only li\- tlie genus 

 iMcleagris. It forms, in combination with the Guinea-fowls {XumiiUda:),ihe. 

 Pheasants and common fowls {Phnsianidcv), and the Grouse and Partridges 

 {Tctraonidai), a peculiar group, to which the name Alcderopodcs has been 

 given by Professor Huxley ; this group is well distinguished from tlie 

 Cracidcc and the Mcgajwdida- (whicli form together an opposed group, called 

 Peristeropodes), in addition to the characters enumerated under the family 

 names, by salient characters developed in the sternum. In the present 

 family and its relations, as aU may recall from experience at the dinner- 

 table, the sternum, or breast-bone, is divided into a long narrow keel (lophos- 

 teon) extending far backwards ; while towards the front, from each side, and 

 separated by a very deep notch from tlie median portion, a wing (pleuros- 

 teon) originates obliquely, and, soon splitting in two, extends also far Ijack- 

 wards ; in front, two processes (called costal) project well forwards. In the 

 Cracidcc and Mcgajiodidce, on the contrary, the sternum is not so split, the 

 keel and wing, as above, being more continuous and the notch compara- 

 tively shallow ; the costal processes are also comparatively small and obtuse. 



Externally the Turkeys have considerable resemblance to the Guinea- 

 fowls (Numididw), but they differ from them in having a backward process 

 of the second metacarpal bone, and in the form of the costal processes of 

 the sternum and of the acromial process of the scapular ; \ihile they are dis- 

 tinguished from the Guinea-fowls and all others by the form of the pelvis 

 (the post-acetabular area is greater than the pre-acetabular, and is also longer 

 than broad), and by the furcula (wish-bone), which is very weak and 

 straight, with its point (liypocleidium) straight and rod-like. To Professor 

 Huxley we are indebted for ha\-ing first pointed out most of these characters. 



Although the number of known species of Meleagridcc as we understand 

 them, is limited to two now living, the family was apparently well repre- 

 sented in former geological periods, no less than three having been already 

 described from more or less perfect remains ; of these, two have been found 

 in the post-pleiocene of New Jersey, one of ■which {Mcleagris alius, ]\Iarsh, 

 or M. siqicrliis, Cope) was taller than the common Turke}', while the other 

 {Melcagris celer, Marsh) was much .smaller. The third species {Mcleagris 

 antiquus, ]Marsli) lived at a still earlier date, its remains having been 

 obtained in the miocene beds of Colorado. 



