222 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



ANALYTICAL SUMMARY 



1 As a rule, in adult specimens of M . g" . m e r r i a m i , the 

 posterior margins of the nasal bones indistinguishably fuse with the 

 frontals ; whereas, as a rule, in domesticated turkeys these sutural 

 traces persist with great distinctness throughout life. 



2 As a rule, in wild turkeys we find the cranio frontal region 

 more concaved,''and wider across than it is in the tame varieties. 



3 The parietal prominences are apt to be more evident in M . g . 

 merriami than they are in the vast majority of domesticated 

 turkeys ; and the median longitudinal line measured from these tO' 

 the nearest point of the occipital ridge is longer in the tame varie- 

 ties than it is in the wild birds. Generally speaking, this latter 

 character is very striking and rarely departed from. 



4 The figure formed by the line which bounds the occipital area^ 

 is, as a rule, roughly semicircular in a domesticated turkey, whereas 

 in M . g" . m e r r i a m i it is nearly always of a cordate outline, 

 with the apex upward. In the case of the tame turkeys I have found 

 it to average one exception to this in every twelve birds ; in the 

 exception, the bounding line of the area made a cordate figure as in 

 wild turkeys. 



5 Among the domesticated turkeys, the interorbital septum al- 

 most invariably is pierced by a large irregular vacuity; as a rule, 

 this osseous plate is entire in wild ones. 



6 The descending process of a lacrymal bone is more apt to be 

 longer in a wild turkey than in a tame one ; and for the average 

 the greater length is always in favor of the former species. 



7 In AI . g" . merriami the arch of the superior margin 

 of the orbit is more decided than it is in the tame turkey, where- 

 the arc formed by this line is shallowed, and not so elevated. 



8 We find, as a rule, that the pterygoid bones are rather longer 

 and more slender in wild turkeys than they are among the tame 

 ones. 



9 At the occipital region of the skull, the osseous structures are 

 denser and thicker in the tame varieties of turkeys ; and, as a 

 whole, the skull is smoother, with its salient apophysis less pro- 

 nounced in them than it is in the wild types-. There is a certain 

 delicacy and lightness, very difficult to describe, that stamps the 

 skull of a wild turkey, and at once distinguishes it from any typical 

 skull of a tame one. 



10 I have predicted that the average size of the brain cavity will 

 be found to be smaller and of a less capacity in a tame turkey 



