T22 ry NELSON, Description of a New Turkey, etc. peri 
Wild Turkeys of Mexico and the southwestern United States 
(aside from M. gallopavo intermedia) as one form which was the 
ancestor of the domesticated bird. This idea is certainly errone- 
ous as is shown by the series of specimens now in the collection 
of the Biological Survey. When the Spaniards first entered 
Mexico, they landed near the present city of Vera Cruz and 
made their way thence to the City of Mexico. At this time 
they found domesticated Turkeys among the Indians of that 
region and within a very few years the birds were introduced in 
Spain. The only part of the country occupied by the Spanish 
during the first few years of the Conquest, in which Wild Tur- 
keys occur, is the eastern slope of the Cordillera in Vera Cruz, 
and there is every reason to suppose that this must have been 
the original home of the birds domesticated by the natives of that 
region. 
In the ‘Proceedings’ of the Zodlogical Society for 1856 
(page 61), Gould described Meleagris mexicana from a speci- 
men obtained by Floresi. Mr. Floresi lived for some time at 
Bolanos, Jalisco, Mexico, where he had charge of a large mining 
plant for an English company also operating mines at Real del 
Monte, Hidalgo. Among the birds sent to England by Floresi, 
was the type of Selasphorus floresi, known to have come from 
Bolanos, and specimens of Campephilus imperialis and Euptilotis 
neoxenus, for which no locality was given, but as both species occur 
on the mountains within a few miles of Bolaiios, it is altogether 
probable that they came from that place. Gould’s description of the 
type of Meleagris mexicana is not sufficiently detailed to determine 
the exact character of his bird, but fortunately the type was figured 
in Elliot’s ‘ Birds of North America’ (Part X, pl. 1, with text, 1868), 
and the most distinctive characteristics——the green iridescence 
on the rump, the maculated and mottled (instead of barred) tail, 
and the absence of rufous about the tail and tail-coverts — are 
well shown. In addition Gould’s type apparently served for the 
description of the adult male of AZ. gallopavo in the ‘ Catalogue of 
Birds of the British Museum’ (XXII, page 387), and an adult 
female is described in the same volume from Ciudad Ranch, 
Durango. 
These descriptions agree so closely with an adult male and 
