ME LEA GRIDIDuE : TURKS VS. 



727 



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tuft of hair-like feathers hanging on the breast ; most of the feathers remarkably broad or 

 even truncate. One genus, two species, peouliar to America. M. ocellatus is the very beau- 

 tiful Turkey of Central America, especially Yucatan and Honduras, smaller than ours, but 

 much more richly iridescent and eyed on some of the plumage like a Peacock ; there is no 

 bristly beard on the breast ; the excrescences on the head are peculiar; the spurs of the ^ are 

 long and sharp, like gaffs. Its characters entitle it to recognitiou as a subgenus at least, if 

 not a full genus, which may be named Emneleagris. 



MELEA'GRIS. (Gr. fxtXtaypls, Lat. meleagris, a Guinea-fowl; transferred in ornithol- 

 ogy to this genus.) Turkeys. Characters of the family. Se.ves similar in plumage, 

 but 9 less lustrous, smaller, and spurless. Nest on ground ; eggs indefinitely numerous, 

 colored. 



M. gallopa'vo. (Lat. galliis, a cock, pavo, a pea-fowl. Figs. 488, 489.) The Turkey. 

 Domestic Turkey. Mexican Turkey. Upper tail-coverts chestnut, with very pale or 

 whitish tips ; tail-feath- 

 ers tipped with brown- 

 ish-yellow or whitisl) ; 

 3-4 feet long, etc. 

 Weight of ^ up to .30 

 Ih.s. or more, tlniugli 

 averaging much less ; 

 9 about 12 lbs. Wild 

 in western Texas, Col- 

 orado, New Mexico, Ari- 

 zona, and southward ; 

 domesticated elsewhere. 

 Tiie Mexican bird is the 

 original of the domestic 

 race; it was upon this 

 form, imported into Eu- 

 rope, that Linnfcus im- 

 posed the name yulln- 

 2}avo (Fn. Suec. 174i'>, 

 p. J98; Syst. Nat. i, 

 1758, J). 1.56; 17G6, j). 

 2ti8), which has gener- 

 ally been applied to the 

 ordinary feral form. It 

 is hard, therefore, tn 

 understand why orui- 

 tliologists so long per- 

 sisted in perpetuating 



ji 1] f (••lllin<r Eiu. I^'.i. — .Mrxiriin liirkcy. (Fniiii " (iiiiiii' Bir.ls of Nortli America," by D. G. Elliot.) 



tills bird .1/. yfdlopaco me.ricana. Granted th;it the Linna>an species was a composite, iu- 

 cluiliiii: all the kinds of Turkeys the Swede ever saw or heard of, the case was not altered 

 tiL(r(I)y. For whou the alleged composite came to be divided into its several forms, the 

 cuiiMiKiu wild bin! of eastern North America wns the first to receive a distinctive name, 

 thus restricting the Linna'an r/ftUopuro to the Southwestern and Mexican form renamed 

 nic.ricana by Gould, I*. Z. S. 18r)(), p. (Jl. I repeatedly set forth the facts in this case, the 

 two forms having stood correctly identified and named in the Key since 1872. Mcvicnna 

 GouEii is a ])ure synonym <if guUopavo LiN'N.. as restricted by Bartram, Vieillot, and others. 



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