I04 Allen's naturalist's library. 



brown and white ; naked skin on head and neck pale crimson. 

 Total length, about 43 inches ; wing, 21 ; tail, 155 ; tarsus, 7. 



Adult Female. — Smaller and less brightly coloured than the 

 male, from which it also differs in having a narrow band of 

 feathers along the middle of the crown to the base of the 

 small erectile process on the forehead ; no bunch of hair-like 

 feathers on the breast ; and the whole of the under-parts fringed 

 with white. Total length, about 40 inches; wing, 17*9; tail, 

 14*3; tarsus, 5*3. 



Range. — Table-lands of North Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, 

 and Western Texas. 



HaMts. — It is from the Mexican form that our domestic 

 breed of Turkeys has been derived. There appears to be no 

 doubt that at the time of the Conquest these birds were 

 regularly reared in captivity by the Mexicans, and were 

 brought to Europe early in the sixteenth century either direct 

 from Mexico or from the West Indian Islands, where they had 

 been previously introduced. 



The Mexican Turkey, according to Captain Bendire, is more 

 of a mountain-loving species than the Eastern bird, and is still 

 reasonably abundant in the wilder portions of Western Texas, 

 the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and is very 

 common in portions of Mexico. He believes that this species 

 attains a greater size than M. americana^ as he shot a speci- 

 men weighing twenty-eight pounds after being drawn, and 

 was informed that much heavier birds are occasionally 

 killed. This he could readily believe, having seen tracks 

 of this species along the banks of the San Pedro River, 

 in Arizona, measuring between five and six inches in length, 

 and unquestionably made by a much larger bird than the one 

 he had killed. Mr. Herbert Brown, of Tucson, Arizona, 

 remarks : — " Without knowing it positively, I am of the 

 belief that they raise two broods of young every season, as 

 I have seen almost all sizes in the mating-season (October), 



