SUBFAMILY MELEAGRINA. 211 
well-known terms. The author may or may not be in 
sympathy with the attempted innovations, and, as in the 
present case, may find it as impossible to prove them 
erroneous as do its advocates to establish their correct- 
ness, but as his chief object is to portray the species con- 
tained in this volume, so that they may be recognized 
by his readers when met with elsewhere, and also be 
possessed of the same names, he has followed this new 
departure, even though it may not be permanent. 
If a change must be made from long-established and 
harmonious custom, there is no question as to which 
names the species of Turkeys must bear, according to 
the/A.©O: ULcode. 
The common Wild Turkey must take the name of 
sylvestris, Viell., and not of americana, Bartram, which 
is a nomen nudum, and the Mexican Turkey must be 
known hereafter as gallopavo, Linn., although that natu- 
ralist may never have seen the bird. 
Under the guise, therefore, of these new appellations 
according to the very latest ideas, the Turkeys have been 
arranged in the following key: 
GENUS MELEAGRIS 
(Greek, pereaypis, meleagrzs, a guinea fowl). 
Meleagris, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed., 10, vol. i., 1758, p. 156. Type, 
M. gallopavo, Linn, 
Head and upper part of neck, bare, carunculated, the male 
with a dewlap considerably developed and an erectile process 
at base of bill. Tarsus scutellated broadly before and behind, 
armed with a spur in the male. Plumage compact, metallic, the 
North American species with a tuft of hairlike feathers depend- 
ing from the breast. 
One species and three subspecies inhabit North America. One 
of the subspecies, J7. s. e//zotz, on account of the conspicuously 
different markings of the female, quite unlike any other known 
