LAND BIRDS. 237 



ville and Jenisonville (MS. List, 1904), Mr. Purdy says that at Plymouth, 

 Wayne county, he has heard of none since 1888. 



We have a specimen in the Agricultural College Museum, taken in Clinton 

 county, a few miles north of the College, in November 1871, and Dr. Atkins 

 recorded a specimen seen at Locke, Ingham county, December 20, 1882, 

 and again January 17, 1884. Mr. C. J. Davis, of Lansing has in his collec- 

 tion a fine gobbler killed near Pine Lake, Ingham county, about December 

 18, 1884. This bird weighed 21J pounds and was one of a pair killed at 

 the same time and place. Mr. Davis believes these to be the last killed 

 in this county. Mr. J. Foster, of Pompeii, informs me that the turkey 

 was formerly found in some numbers in Isabella county. He has hunted 

 in every part of the Lower Peninsula but has never heard of or seen any 

 sign of this species north of that county. Mr. F. H. Chapin, of Kalamazoo, 

 writes that in the winter of 1888 he followed a Wild Turkey for some 

 distance in Cooper township, Kalamazoo county, but it escaped by flying 

 across the river. He also states that in the fall of 1892 or 1893 he was 

 informed by reliable parties that there was a small flock in jMartin township, 

 Allegan county, in a swamp bordering the Gunn River, and on jNIarch 6, 

 1892, he flushed one in a swamp near Almena, Van Buren county, and saw. 

 it disappear over the treetops. Farmers in the vicinity informed him that 

 there was quite a large flock in the swamp. 



It should be noted that in several parts of the state the domesticated 

 turkey has run wild and is by many regarded as the true Wild Turkey. 

 Such birds fly nearly as well as wild birds and are almost as hard to shoot. 

 They may be readily distinguished, however, by the markings of the tail- 

 feathers and the upper tail-coverts, which are always white-tipped in the 

 domesticated form and chestnut in the wild bird. 



The turkey nests on the ground, laying ten to eighteen eggs, which are 

 light buff, thickly speckled or sprinkled with brown, and averaging 2.55 

 by 1.79 inches. We have a single egg in the College ^Museum, numbered 

 4977, and collected by Wilham Kedzie, in Lansing township, but the date 

 is not known. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male:" Head,' with its bristly bare skin, fleshy apiicndaiie, wattles,' etc. red, 

 blue and white, as in the domestic turkey; a large tuft of coarse l)lack l)ristles hangmg 

 from the center of the upper breast; general plumage dark brown, with lich metallic lustre, 

 showing burnished bronze, copper, blued steel, or gold, according to the angle at which 

 the light strikes it; most of the feathers of the under parts, and especially those of the 

 wing-coverts, lower back and rump, tipped with velvet black; upper tail-coverts tipped 

 with chestnut; primaries and secondaries slate-colored, barretl with white, the white 

 bars broadest and most conspicuous on the secondaries; tail brown, narrowly barred 

 witii black, with a broad subterminal black band and tipped conspicuously witli brigiit 

 reddish brown or chestnut. Adult female : Similar but much smaller, iluller, and browner, 

 tlie metallic reflections largely wanting and no trace of the "beard" on the chest. 



Length of male 48 to 50 inches; whig 21; tail 18.50; weight IG to 10 iiounds. 



Family PHASIANID/E. Pheasants. 



This is the old-world family to which belong the bai'uyard fowl, iioacock 

 golden and silver pheasants, and nearly a hundred other species. It is 

 represented in Michigan only by one or two species lecently introduced 

 and as yet 'doubtfully established. The commonest form is the Pmg- 

 necked or Japanese Pheasant, but the closely related I'lnglish Pliea.sant 

 may have been liberated in a few places. 



