BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 437 



as wing), the acrotarsium with two rows of interdigitating broad trans- 

 verse scutella (as in most of Phasianidae), the planta tarsi also with two 

 rows, but on inner side the row of large scutella separated from the frontal 

 scutella and replaced on lower portion by small hexagonal or lozenge- 

 shaped scales; adult males with a more or less prominent (sometimes 

 long and acute) strong spur on lower portion of planta tarsi, about three- 

 fourths the distance from upper end to base of hallux ; middle toe about 

 half as long as tarsus or a little more, the outer toe reaching to beyond 

 penultimate articulation of middle toe (nearly if not quite to middle of 

 subterminal phalanx), the inner toe slightly shorter; hallux a little more 

 than half as long as basal phalanx of middle toe ; a well-developed web 

 between basal phalanges of anterior toes; claws relatively small, very 

 slightly curved, blunt. 



Plumage and coloration. — Head and upper neck nude, or in females 

 more or less covered with short downy feathers ; feathers of lower neck 

 and body very broad, with truncate or subtruncate tips ; remiges strong, 

 the proximal secondaries very broad, with rounded tips, the primaries very 

 rigid ; plumage of lower abdomen and anal region soft and almost downy, 

 that of thighs short and soft. General color dark with metallic reflec- 

 tions, less brilliant in females, most of the feathers margined terminally 

 with black, the remiges grayish dusky more or less barred with white ; bare 

 skin of head and neck brightly colored in life (white, blue, and red in one 

 genus; blue and orange in another). 



Range. — Eastern temperate and tropical North America, south to 

 British Honduras and eastern Guatemala. (Two monotypic genera.) 



The Meleagrididae are very closely related to the Phasianidae but differ 

 in a sufficient number of characters to warrant their recognition as a 

 distinct family. They are exclusively American, while the typical Phasi- 

 anidae (Phasianinae) are found only in Eurasia and Africa. 



KEY TO THE GENERA OF MELEAGRIDIDAE 



a. Crown without a vertical process or protuberance; adult male with a beardlike 

 tuft of long, coarse, stiff bristles on center of chest; tail less strongly rounded, 

 the difference in length between middle and outer rectrices equal to but little, 

 if any, more than half the length of tarsus, the rectrices broader and less 

 rounded (nearly subtruncate) at tips; rectrices without metallic tips or 



subterminal ocelli Meleagris (p. 437) 



aa. Crown, in male, with a conspicuous subcylindrical erect protuberance ; no beard- 

 like tuft on chest ; tail more strongly rounded, the difference in length between 

 middle and lateral rectrices equal to about distance from heel joint to base 

 of hallux, the rectrices narrower and distinctly rounded at tips ; rectrices with 

 a terminal band of bright metallic coppery bronze and a subterminal spot or 

 ocellus of metallic blue Agriocharis (p. 458) 



Gemis MELEAGRIS Linnaeus 



Meleagris Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., cd. 10, i, 1758, 156. (Type, as designated by Gray, 

 1840, M. gallopavo Linnaeus.) 



653008°— 46 29 



