616 U. S. p. R. R. EXP, AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 



feathers are eighteen in number, nearly truncate at tip ; or obtusely angular, the corners 

 rounded. 



The naked skin of the head and neck is blue ; the excrescences purplish red. The legs are 

 red. The feathers of the neck and body generally are very broad, abruptly truncate, and each 

 one well defined and scale-like ; the exposed portion coppery bronze, with a bright coppery 

 reflection in some lights, in the specimens before me chiefly on the under parts. Each feather 

 is abruptly margined with velvet black, the bronze assuming a greenish or purplish shade near 

 the line of junction, and the bronze itself sometimes with a greenish reflection in some lights. 

 The black is opaque, except along the extreme tip, where thei-e is a metallic gloss. The 

 feathers of the lower back and rump are black, with little or no copper gloss. The feathers of 

 the sides behind, and the coverts, upper and under, are of a very dark purplish chestnut, with 

 purplish metallic reflections near the end, and a subterminal bar of black ; the tips are of the 

 opaque purplish chestnut referred to. The concealed portion of the coverts is dark chestnut 

 barred rather finely with black ; the black wider than the interspaces. The tail feathers are 

 dark brownish chestnut, with numerous transverse bars of black, which, when most distinct, 

 are about a quarter of an inch wide and about double their interspaces ; the extreme tip for 

 about half an inch is plain chestnut, lighter than the ground color ; and there is a broad 

 subterminal bar of black about two inches wide on the outer feathers, and narrowing to about 

 three-quarters of an inch to the central ones. The innermost pair scarcely shows this band, 

 and the others are all much broken and confused. In addition to the black bars on each 

 feather, the chestnut interspaces are sprinkled with black. The black bands are all most distinct 

 on the inner webs ; the interspaces are considerably lighter below than above. 



There are no whitish tips whatever to the tail or its coverts. The feathers on the middle of 

 the belly are downy, opaque, and tipped obscurely with rusty whitish. 



The wing coverts are like the back ; the quills, however, are blackish brown, with numerous 

 transverse bars of white, half the width of the interspaces. The exposed surfaces of the wing, 

 however, and most of the inner secondaries, are tinged with brownish rusty, the uppermost 

 ones with a dull copper or greenish gloss. 



The female differs in smaller size, less brilliant colors, absence generally of bristles on the 

 breast and of spur, and a much smaller fleshy jjrocess above the base of the bill. 



The position of the spur in the male varies somewhat in diff"ereut specimens, and even at 

 times in the two legs of the same bird. 



The wild turkey of eastern North America differs in several points, both of structure and 

 manners, from the domesticated bird, as recently insisted on by Major Leconte. I have not at 

 hand a skin of the barn yard turkey for comparison, and owing to the season they are not to be 

 found in our markets ; but according to Major Leconte, there is a great diflerence, in the 

 possession by the latter of an enormous dewlap, extending from the base of the lower mandible 

 to the large caruncles on the lower part of the neck, not found in the other. The color of the 

 skin of the head and neck is not livid blue, but more of a fleshy tint, which in the breeding 

 season of the male becomes fiery red, owing to the turgidity of the caruncles. This skin, too, 

 appears to be more destitute of hairs. According to Honaparte, the domestic turkey, even in 

 those which have the closest resemblance to the wild bird, may always be distinguished by a 

 whitish tip to the tail, and the tail coverts edged with whitish, never seen in the other. 



