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1913 niiUFEiiDT, tonlttoutioni in Avian laleontology •><> 



Meleagris g, sHvesiris, il is to be discovered al oner thai the com- 

 parable characters by no means agree. 



In the existing ipecies of turkey, there is bul b single median 

 groove marking the hypotarsus posteriorly. In Marsh's M. celer, 

 the hypotarsus of this tar 10 metatar m i thus twice longitudinally 

 grooved. 



In M. g, silvestris, there is a pronounced ridge of bone extending 

 lome distance down the shaft, ii being the continuation of the 

 thickened, inner border of the hypotar us. In the case of the 

 fo il fragment here being considered, this ridge is only indicated, 

 and, if ii were ever present al all, ii is here broken 'ill and missing 

 1 1 is a dangerou practice to describe pari and characters in fossil 

 bone • i 1 nil are nol present i here. 



in, in the ca le of thi i fo il fragment, ii general appearance 

 or fades i quite unlike the corresponding pari of the tarso-meta 

 tar u in .1/. g, silvestris, or thai of any other existing wild turkey, 

 rndeed, off-hand I would say that il never came from the skeleton 

 of ;m.\ meleagrine fowl a1 all, existing or extinct. And, as in 

 the case of the alleged M. antiqua, it may have belonged to tin 

 skeleton of the tarsus of some other kind of agallinefowl nol 

 a meleagrine one wliil<; ii is quite a i likely to have belonged to 

 the skeleton of some heron (Ardea) or other large wader as ii <li<l 

 to a l nil. cy. 



For example, in some of the herons "the hypotarsus of the 

 tar o-metatarsus is 3-crested, graduated in size, the outer being the 

 smaller; the tendinal grooves pass between them." ' 



1 1 ha jusl been pointed out in the last paragraph thai the hypo- 

 tar ii of the tarso-metatarsus in Marsh's Meleagris celer is 3- 

 cr< i''l, and the tendinal grooves pass between these crests, as in 

 certain Herons. Mind you, I am nol saying thai Marsh had the 

 bone of an extincl heron before him; but this is ;i significant fact, 

 especially when we find, in the case of M. g. silvestris, the hypo- 

 tar n of the tarso-metatarsus is bul 2-crested, having i li«- median 

 groo\ <• pa ising be1 ween i hem. 



From fos il material to positively establish an extincl speci 

 of Meleagris, one should have at leasl a sufficienl pari < 



i Shufeldt. R. M Oiteologlcal budlM of the Subfamllj Irdelna 

 Mod and Burg \ ol X ' <■ I Pblla . Od 1899, pp . I] 



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