413 



MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO, VAR. GALLOPAVO (Linn). 

 WILD TURKEY. 



Specific Character. — The naked skin of the head and neck is blue ; the 

 excrescences purple red. The legs are red. the feathers of the neck and body 

 generally are very broad, abruptly truncate and each one well defined and scale 

 like ; the exposed portion coppery bronze with a bright coppery reflection in some 

 lights, in the specimens before us chiefly on the under parts. Each feather is 

 abruptly margined with velvet black, the bronze assuming a greenish or purplish 

 shade near the line of junction, and the bronze itself sometimes with a greenish 

 reflection in some lights. The black is opaque, except along the extreme tip, 

 where there is a metallic gloss. The feathers of the lower back and rump are 

 black with little or no copper gloss. 



The feathers of the sides behind, and the coverts, upper and under, are of a 

 very dark purplish chestnut, with purplish metallic reflections near the end and a 

 subterminal bar of black ; the tips are of the opaque purplish chestnut referred 

 to. The concealed portion of the coverts is dark chestnut barred rather finely 

 •with black, the black wider than the interspaces. The tail feathers are dark 

 brownish chestnut, with numerous transverse bars of black, which when most dis- 

 tinct, are about a quarter of an inch wide and about double their interspaces ; 

 their extreme tip for about half an inch is plain chestnut, lighter than the ground 

 colour, and there is a broad subterminal bar of black about two inches wide on the 

 outer feathers and narrowing to about three-quarters of an inch to the central 

 ones. The innermost pair scarcely show this band and the others are all much 

 broken and confused. In addition to the black bars on each feather the chestnut 

 interspaces are sprinkled with black. The black bands are all most distinct on 

 the inner webs ; the interspaces are all considerably lighter below than above. 



There are no whitish tips whatever to the tail or its coverts. The feathers 

 on the middle of the belly are downy, opaque and tipped obscurelj^ with rusty 

 whitish. 



The wing coverts are like the back ; the quills, however, are blackish brown, 

 with numerous transverse bars of w.hite, half the width of the interspaces. The 

 exposed surfaces of the wing, however, and most of the inner secondaries are 

 tinged with brownish rusty, the uppermost ones with a dull copper or greenish, 

 gloss. 



The female diflers in smaller size, less brilliant colours, absence generally of 

 bristles on the breast and of spur, and a much smaller fleshy process above the 

 base of the bill. 



Male: Length 48.00 to 50.00 inches; extent 60.00 inches; wing 21.00 

 inches; tail 18.50 inches. Weight 16 to 35 lb. Female. Weight about 12 lb. ; 

 measurements smaller in proportion. 



Habitat. — Eastern province of the United States and Canada. West along 

 the timbered river valleys towards the Rocky Mountains ; south to the gulf coast. 



In North America there are two varieties of wild turkey, the Mexican, which 

 has the feathers of the rump, the tail coverts and tail feathers tipped with whitish 

 instead of dark rusty as in the other variety, the common wild turkey of eastern 

 and southern United States and Canada. It is generally conceded now that it 

 is to the Mexican variety we owe the origin of the domestic bird, some well-bred 

 ones of which have been known to attain the weight of 45 lb. 



33 (c.) 



