23G MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



Family 33. MELEAGRID^. Turkeys. 



Only a single Michigan species, the Wild Turkey, formerly abundant in 

 the southern half of the state, now exterminated. 



127. Wild Turkey. Meleagris gallopavo silvestris, Vieill. (310a) 



Synonyms: American Turkey, I'^ustern Turkey, Northern Turkey. — Meleagris 

 gallopavo, Linn., 1758, and most of the older American writers. — Meleagris americana, 

 Bartram, 179L — Meleagris silvestris, Vieill., 1817. — Gallopavo sylvestris, Catesby, 1730, 

 Leconte, 1857. — Meleagris fera, Vieill., 1824. 



So similar to the domesticated turkey that no description is needed, 

 yet a single tail-feather will show from which bird it was taken. In the 

 domesticated turkey the rump feathers as well as the tail-feathers are 

 always tipped with white; in the Wild Turkey these feathers are tipped 

 invariably with rich chestnut brown. 



Distribution.— United States from Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf coast, 

 and west to the Plains, along wooded river valleys; formerly north to 

 southern Maine, southern Ontario, and up the Missouri River to North 

 Dakota. 



Formerly an abundant bird at least as far north as the Saginaw Valley, 

 there is every reason to believe that at present the species is extinct in 

 Michigan. Up to 1875 it was fairly common over a large part of the state, 

 but during the next five years it decreased with extraordinary rapidity, 

 and before 1890 had become so uncommon as to be considered a very rare 

 bird almost everywhere. Mr. W. B. Mershon, of Saginaw, in a letter dated 

 July 18, 1905, says: "The last one I killed, as near as I can figure, was 

 about 18 years ago. It was at a point about three miles south and west 

 of Reece (in Saginaw Co.?), and weighed 23-| pounds, the most magnificent 

 specimen of a turkey gobbler I have ever seen. I have it nicely mounted 

 and in my collection at my office. There were five in the bunch. For a 

 few years after this I heard of turkeys still being in the dense swamp around 

 Akron, Tuscola county. This is a point just beyond Fairgrove, on the 

 S. T. & H., and I have no doubt they did exist in that locality longer than 

 in any part of Michigan, but I do not believe there has been a genuine 

 Wild Turkey left in Michigan in the last six or seven years. ' ' 



From an article by Mr. F. S. Shuver, we quote the following: ''Quite 

 common in Van Buren county until 1880. A few have continued to breed 

 in Arlington township, and 14 or 15 were shot in the winter of 1893-94. 

 Several more were killed in the winter of 1895-96, and a few were seen during 

 the winter of 1896-97. A gobbler shot in January, 1897, was the last one I 

 have heard of" (Bull. Mich. Orn. Club, Apr. 1898). Mr. Covert furnishes 

 a record of a male killed in Tuscola county, October 12, 1874, and a female 

 near Ann Arbor, November 19, 1876. In 1904 Mr. B. H. Swales stated 

 that it was then extinct in the southeastern part of the state (Birds of S. 

 E. Michigan). Mr. Newell A. Eddy tells me that in 1883, and for at least 

 three years later. Wild Turkeys were sold frequently in the Bay City markets 

 and doubtless were taken in the immediate vicinity. Mr. John Hazelwood 

 writes that he frequently shot turkeys within a mile of the city of Port 

 Huron "many years ago, but there is not one left in this county now" 

 (1904). Dr. Robt. H. Wolcott states that it was numerous near Grand 

 Rapids up to the middle eighties, and reported as late as 1897 from Hudson- 



