410 NOETH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



in breadth from 1.85 to 1.75 inches. They are of an elongate-oval shape, 

 are pointed at one end, quite obtuse at the other. The ground is a rich dark 

 cream-color, very generally spotted with rounded blotches of a rare umber- 

 brown. 



Meleagris gallopavo, var. mexicana, Gould. 



MEXICAN TUKKEY. 



Meleagris nnexicana, Gould, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1856, 61. — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 618. — 

 CouES, P. A. N. S. Philad. 1866, 93 (Fort Whipple, Arizona). —Elliot, Illust. II, 

 pi. xxxviii. — Baird, Kept. Agricultural Dept. for 1866 (1867) 288. — Cooper, Orn. 

 Cal. 1, 1870, 523. Meleagris gallopavo. Gray, Cat. Gallinse, Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 42. 



Sp. Char. Similar to var. gallopavo, but featliers of the rump, the tail-coverts, and 

 tail-feathers, tipped with whitish, instead of dark rusty ; gloss more greenish. ^ (44,731, 

 Mirador) : Wing, 20.50 ; tail, 18.50 ; culmen, 1.00 ; tarsus, 6.50 ; middle toe, 3.50. 



Hab. Rocky Mountains, from Western Texas to Arizona, and south along the table 

 land of Mexico. 



Wild Turkeys from the vicinity of the Eocky Mountains differ strikingly 

 from those east of the Mississippi in the feathers of the sides of the body 

 behind, and in the upper and under tail-coverts. These are all tipped with 

 light brownish-yellow for about half an inch, more or less with the region, 

 and the tail is tipped with the same. The chestnut ground of the tail and 

 coverts is also considerably lighter. The gloss on the feathers of the rump 

 is green, not purple. The coverts, too, lack in a measure the purple shade 

 in the chestnut. The metallic reflections generally have rather more green 

 than in the eastern bird. 



In one specimen (?, 10,030, from Fort Thorn) the light edgings are 

 almost white, and so much extended as to conceal the entire rump. All the 

 feathers of the under parts of the body are edged broadly with white, and 

 the tail is tipped with the same for more than an inch. This specimen also 

 has the head considerably more hairy than in the eastern skins, but the 

 others from the same region do not differ so much in this respect from 

 eastern ones. 



Two specimens from the Llano Estacado of Texas are exactly intermediate 

 between New Mexican skins and examples from Arkansas, the former being 

 typical mexicana, and the latter slightly different from true gallopavo. These 

 Texan specimens have the tips of the upper tail-coverts pale ochraceous, 

 instead of pure white ; in the Arkansas skins these tips are rufous-chestnut, 

 instead of dark maroon-chestnut, as in typical gallopavo from Pennsylvania 

 and Virginia. 



Many, or indeed most, specimens of mexicana have the black subter- 

 minal zone of the tail with a more or less distinct metallic bronzing, which 

 we have never seen in any specimens of gallopavo. 



