402 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Family MELEAGRID^. — The Turkeys. 



Char. Bill moderate ; the nasal fossas bare. Head and neck without feathers, but 

 with scattered hairs, and more or less carunculated. An extensible fleshy process on the 

 forehead, but no development of the bone. Tarsus armed with spurs in the male. Hind 

 toe elevated. Tail nearly as long as the wing, truncate, of more than twelve feathers. 



The family 3Ieleagridm, or Turkeys, as at present known, is entirely con- 

 fined to North and Middle America, and represented only by the genus 

 Mcleagris. It forms, in combination with the Guinea-fowls {Nmnididce), the 

 Pheasants and common fowls {Phasianidm), and the Grouse and Partridges 

 {Tetraonidce), a peculiar group, to which the name Alecteropodes has been 

 given by Professor Huxley ; this group is well distinguished from the 

 Cracidce and the MegaiMdidoi (which form together an opposed group, called 

 Peristeropodes), in addition to the characters enumerated under the family 

 names, by salient characters developed in the sternum. In the present 

 family and its relations, as all may recall from experience at the dinner- 

 table, the sternum, or breast-bone, is divided into a long narrow keel (lophos- 

 teon) extending far backwards ; while towards the front, from each side, and 

 separated by a very deep notch from the median portion, a wing (pleuros- 

 teon) originates obliquely, and, soon splitting in two, extends also far back- 

 wards ; in front, two processes (called costal) project well forwards. In the 

 Cracidce and Megapodidm, on the contrary, the sternum is not so split, the 

 keel and wing, as above, being more continuous and the notch compara- 

 tively shallow ; the costal processes are also comparatively small and obtuse. 



Externally the Turkeys have considerable resemblance to the Guinea- 

 fowls (Numididce), but they differ from them in having a backward process 

 of the second metacarpal bone, and in the form of the costal processes of 

 the sternum and of the acromial process of the scapular ; while they are dis- 

 tinguished from the Guinea-fowls and all others by the form of the pelvis 

 (the post-acetabular area is greater than the pre-acetabular, and is also longer 

 than broad), and by the furcula (wish-bone), which is very weak and 

 straight, with its point (hypocleidium) straight and rod-like. To Professor 

 Huxley we are indebted for having first pointed out most of these characters. 



Although the number of known species of 3Icleagridce as we understand 

 them, is limited to two now living, the family was apparently well repre- 

 sented in former geological periods, no less than three having been already 

 described from more or less perfect remains ; of these, two have been found 

 in the post-pleiocene of New Jersey, one of wdiich {Mcleagris alius, Marsh, 

 or M. su'jjcrhus, Cope) was taller than the common Turkey, while the other 

 {Mcleagris celer, Marsh) M'as much smaller. The third species {Mcleagris 

 antiqims, Marsh) lived at a still earlier date, its remains having been 

 obtained in the miocene beds of Colorado. 



