206 GALLIEFORMES CHAP. 
rusty spotting. Phasidus 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 gallipavo and M. ocellata. The former has three 
races—distinguished by the tail and its upper coverts being tipped 
with 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 remiges 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. -JZ. ocellata of Yucatan, British Honduras, 
and Guatemala, 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- 
erescences respectively, while the pectoral tuft 1s 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 
1 This name, and the Latin Meleagris, seem to have originally belonged to the 
Guinea-Fowl. JL gallipavo, the origin of our farm-yard Turkey, was domesticated 
in Europe by about 1530. Cf. A. Newton, Dict. Birds, 1896, pp. $94-996. 
