112 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Family PHASIANID^. Pheasants, etc. 

 39. Meleagris gallopavo Linn^us. 



WILD TUKKEY. 



I 



Meleagris (jallopavo Linn^us, Systema Naturae, ed. 10, i, 1758, 156. 



(B 457, C 379a, R 470«, C 554, U 310.) 



Geographical range : Eastern United States; nortli to Soiitlieru Canada; soutli 

 to Florida and middle Texas; west to the edge of the Great Plains. 



The breeding range of the Wild Turkey, the largest and finest of our 

 game birds, is yearly becoming more and more restricted, and at the present 

 rate of decrease its total extinction east of the Mississippi and north of the 

 Ohio River is only a question of a few years. The northern range of this 

 species may be defined as follows: It is still to be found in smar numbers in 

 the thinly populated and wooded portions of Pennsylvania, westward in similar 

 localities to Ohio, southern Michigan, southern Wisconsin, and possibly south- 

 ern Minnesota, as well as in some portions of Iowa, and a few probably remain 

 in southern and western Ontario, Canada; south through Missouri and Kansas, 

 where they are nearly exterminated, thence through the Indian Territory, east- 

 em and central Texas, where they are still abundant, thence east through all 

 the Grulf States to Florida and north to the first-named State. In the south- 

 western portions of Indiana and Illinois the Wild Turkey is not uncommon 

 along the extensive river bottoms, and throughout nearly all the Southern 

 States, including Maryland, it is still moderately common in suitable localities, 

 especially in the mountainous districts. It was not uncommon in southern 

 South Dakota and Nebraska within the last ten years, but these birds are no 

 longer found there. At the present time it is most common in the Indian Ter- 

 ritory and the thinly-settled portions of eastern and central Texas and Florida. 



The Wild Turkey is a resident wherever found. Numerous records attest 

 the abundance of this magnificent game bird throughout the southern New 

 England States in former years, and evidences of its existence have been found 

 in southern Elaine. 



The Wild Turkey is essentially a woodland bird, and inhabits the damp 

 and often swampy bottom lands along the borders of the larger streams, as well 

 as the drier mountainous districts found within its range, spending the greater 

 part of the day on the ground in search of food, and roosting by night in the 

 tallest trees to be found. From constant persecution in the more settled por- 

 tions of its range, it has become by far the most cunning, suspicious, and wary 

 of all our game birds, while in sections of the Indian TeiTitory and Texas, 

 where it has till recently been but little molested, it is still by no means a shy 

 bird. 



Capt. William L. Carpenter, Ninth Infantry, U. S. Army, writes me as 

 follows: "March, 1880, found me encamped on the Niobrara River, Nebraska, 



