AVES. 
233 
spur; wings short, rounded, and concave, the fourth and fifth 
quills the longest; tail consisting of eighteen feathers, capable of 
being expanded and elevated into a fan-shape. 
Meleagris gallopavo. — The Common Turkey. 
Plate LII1. fig. 3. 
Dark brownish-green above, and below with a coppery me¬ 
tallic lustre; lesser wing-cherts ferruginous, and margined with 
yellow; middle feathers partly green, and the others reddish- 
fawn colour, with a black iridescent spot at their tips, edged with 
white; interscapulum dull blue-gray ; rump deep fawn-colour; 
tail-coverts ferruginous tail burnt umber-brown; skin of neck 
blue, with flesh-coloured warts ; irides dark brown ; bill brown ; 
legs crimson ; with a pendulous tuft of long black bristles sus¬ 
pended from the breast. Length four feet. Inhabits the Unit¬ 
ed States. 
Genus 7. — ARGUS.— Temminck. 
Generic Character. —Bill the length of the head, compressed, 
straight, and naked at the base ; upper mandible arcuated, and 
bent towards the tip; nostrils lateral, situated near the middle 
of the bill, partly closed by a membrane; head, cheeks, and 
neck, naked; legs slender, the tarsus smooth •, fore toes united 
by membranes; hallux jointed on the tarsus; tail long, consist¬ 
ing of twelve feathers, ascending, compressed, the two middle 
feathers long, tapering. 
Argus gig ant eus. — The Gigantic Argus. 
Plate LV. fig. 1. 
Back and tail-coverts yellow fawn-colour, with ferruginous 
spots; secondaries with numerous eye-like spots ; webs of the 
quills blue; tail blackish-brown, spotted with white; lower 
parts of the neck and under parts of the body reddish-brown. 
Five feet three inches long. Inhabits Surinam. 
Genus 8—NUMIDA.— Linnaeus. 
Generic Character —Bill short, thick, arcuated, with a warted 
membrane at its base, and a carunculated wattle suspended un¬ 
der the lower mandible ; nostrils placed in the cere, divided by 
a cartilage ; head naked in some species, clothed with feathers 
t 3 
