THE WILD TURKEY 285 
of these subspecies are slight, and the sportsman will 
do well to try to learn the geographical ranges of the 
different forms, for in most cases the locality will be 
to him a better guide in identifying the bird he kills 
than will any color description. The Mexican turkey 
is markedly different from the bird of the East, and 
the two will readily be distinguished. The differences 
between the various turkeys are found chiefly in the 
coloring of the rectrices, or tail feathers, and of the 
tail coverts and the primaries. 
The original wild turkey—to which the name Melea- 
gris gallopavo was given—has been shown to be the 
bird later described by Gould as the Mexican wild 
turkey. It is notably different from the eastern form, 
for its tail, tail coverts and the feathers of the lower 
rump are tipped with white or whitish, while the 
eastern and northern turkey has those feathers tipped 
with deep rusty or even with rich dark chestnut. The 
ordinary domestic turkey shows the whitish tippings 
of the feathers of tail, tail coverts and lower rump— 
characters derived from its ancestor, the turkey of 
Mexico. The Mexican turkey occupies the wooded 
mountain slopes bordering the Mexican tablelands on 
the south and west, ranging north to Chihuahua, but 
it does not reach the United States. Mr. Nelson has 
shown where it grades into Merriam’s turkey on 
the north, while to the south in southeastern Mexico 
and Central America, it is replaced by a strikingly dis- 
tinct species, the.brilliantly hued ocellated turkey. 
The eastern wild turkey, which was long considered 
