SUBFAMILY MELEAGRIN^E. 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. U. code. 



The common \\'ild Turkey must take the name of 

 syk'csfris, Viell., and not of amcvicana, Bartram, w-hich 

 is a nomcn 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, fi^Keaypis, meleagris, 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, M. s. elh'oti, on account of the conspicuously 

 different markings of the female, quite unlike any other known 



