206 GALLIFORMES 



rusty spotting. FJiasidus is not gregarious. The rock-loving 

 Numida ptilorhyncha attains an altitude of nine thousand feet. 



Sub-fam. 2. Meleagrinae. — Of the Turkeys/ there are only two 

 species, Meleagris gcdlipavo and 31. ocellata. The former has three 

 races — distinguished by the tail and its upper coverts being tipped 

 M^ith white, buff, and chestnut respectively — the united. range ex- 

 tending from Southern Canada to Mexico through the Eastern and 

 South-Western States. They are coppery-bronze, with purplish- 

 green and golden sheen and black markings ; the reniiges being 

 brown barred with white, and the tail black and brown with broad 

 dark sub-terminal band. The reddish head and neck are nearly bare, 

 shewing wrinkled warty skin and a pendent erectile process on 

 the forehead ; a bunch of long black bristles decorates the chest 

 of the male, which has a stout spur on each metatarsus. The 

 bill and feet are red. M. ocellata of Yucatan, British Honduras, 

 and Gruatemala, has black plumage, tipped with brassy-green, and 

 fringed with greenish-copper, that becomes redder below; the rump 

 region is steel-blue, and brilliant ocelli of green-blue margined with 

 copper mark the ends of the greyish rectrices and their coverts. 

 The frontal caruncle and the head are blue, with red tip and ex- 

 crescences respectively, while the pectoral tuft is absent. 



The wild Turkey is wary and extremely quick of foot, spend- 

 ing the day chiefly upon the ground and roosting high in the 

 trees ; it frequents wooded country, and feeds upon plants, seeds, 

 nuts and other fruits, with lizards and insects. In spring the 

 males fight viciously, and show off before the assembled hens ;. 

 strutting around with erect, outspread tails and drooping wings, 

 while uttering puffing and gobbling noises. Each cock having 

 secured a mate or two, breeding takes place, after which the 

 sexes separate, but combine again in autumn and wander widely 

 in search of food. A hole, scraped under some log or tuft of 

 herbage, and lined with dry leaves, receives the yellowish-white 

 eggs with red-brown spots ; the number varying from ten tO' 

 eighteen, or even more if several hens co-operate. 



Sub-fam. 3. Phasianinae. — Among these a detailed description 

 is unnecessary of the fine blue, green, and rufous plumage of the Pea- 

 cock {Pavo cristatus), or of the green, purple, copper, and gold ocelli 



^ This name, and the Latin Melengris, seem to have originally belonged to the 

 Guinea-Fowl. 31. gallipavo, the origin of our farm-yard Turkey, was domesticated 

 in Europe by about 1530. Cf A. Newton, Did. Birds, 1896, pp. 994-996. 



