NO. 2 AVIFAUNA OF PLEISTOCENE IN FLORIDA WETMORK 33 



fragmentary, and part of a sternum. There is i)art of a metatarsus 

 in the same collections from the north bank of the canal between the 

 Florida East Coast Railroad and the highway at Vero. Gidley col- 

 lected a broken metatarsus near Melbourne March i, 1928, and 

 Singleton in the same year working in this same deixjsit for the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology secured i)arts of humerus, meta- 

 tarsus, and tibio-tarsus. The wild turkey must have been abundant in 

 Florida during the Ice Age. 



The type specimen of Ardca scUardsi Shufeldt,' the distal end of 

 a right tibio-tarsus. proves on examination to be from a wild turkey. 

 The bone is from an individual apparently barely adult and of small 

 size, possibly from a young female. The condyles are worn and 

 abraded in such a manner as to mask their true form, leading to error 

 in the earlier identification. The type in question is equalled in size 

 by the smallest in a considerable series of modern wild turkey bones 

 examined. Ardca scUardsi thus becomes a synonym of Mclcagris 

 gallopavo. The specimen was taken in Pleistocene deposits in stratum 

 Number Three, near Vero, Florida. 



MELEAGRIS TRIDENS sp. nov. 



Characters. — Metatarsus (pi. 6, and fig. 13) similar to that of 

 Mclcagris gallopavo Linnaeus ^ but male with three-pointed spur core. 



Description. — Type, U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 12052. Central portion of 

 shaft of right metatarsus, collected by W. W. Holmes, in the Semi- 

 nole area, Pinellas County, Florida. Shaft strong, flattened antero- 

 posteriorly below, and more rounded above ; anterior face with a wide, 

 shallow groove that becomes obsolete at level of central spur; below 

 this the anterior face is ridged and shallowly grooved by tendons 

 leading to the toes ; external side of shaft rounded ; internal side more 

 flattened, spurs rising from a common base in a broad buttress of 

 bone projecting obliquely inward from the inner side of the posterior 

 surface; central spur strong and heavy (tip partly broken away); 

 with an accessory spur above and below of smaller size, the upper one 

 slightly more acute than a right triangle in outline, relatively broad 

 transversely, with the distal extremity widened laterally so that in 

 form it is like a cog in a cogwheel ; distal accessory spur longer, more 

 slender, with a conical, rather sharp point; outer surface of buttress 

 supporting spurs broadly grooved for the passage of tendons that in 

 life passed down the back of the metatarsus ; a distinct, rather narrow, 



'Journ. Geol., Jan.-Feb. (publ. Jan.), 1917, p. 19. See also Florida State 

 Geol. Surv., 1917, Ninth Ann. Rep., pp. 38-39, pi. 2, fig. 15. 



^ Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. i, 1758, p. 156. 



