592 



G A L L I N I D JB. 



Cryptunu noctivagut. This is a Brazilian species, 

 and gets its name from its habit of stirring and utter- 

 ing its cry during the night, or, at all events, very 

 early in the morning and very late in the evening. 

 The upper part is dull greyish ash, clouded with 

 orown and reddish and streaked with black. The 

 top of the head and the rump are rusty brown, and 

 the coverts blackish brown. The throat is whitish, 

 the breast pale rose colour, and all the rest of the under 

 part russet. The bill brown, with the base of the 

 under mandible whitish and the feet brownish ash. 

 The full grown male is between thirteen and fourteen 

 inches in length. 



There are about as many more known species as 

 those which we have mentioned ; and it is probable 

 that there are several others which have hitherto 

 escaped observation ; but none of them appear to 

 dift'er so much from each other as that a further enu- 

 meration would be interesting to the general reader. 

 The vast number of species, however, and the fact of 

 the whole of these species being confined to the Ame- 

 rican continent southward of the isthmus of Darien, 

 are worthy of notice, as indicating the peculiar state 

 of nature in the greater number of her productions 

 in that part of the world. They are indeed so unique, 

 so different from those of other countries, even from 

 those of Africa, Holland, and the eastern islands which 

 have the same latitude, that they especially recom- 

 mend themselves to every one who wishes to study 

 the relations which subsist between a country con- 

 sidered in its structure and meteorology, and the or- 

 ganised beings, whether animal or vegetable, which 

 that country produces. 



We have next to mention an American genus, 

 which, in an economical point of view, and for the 

 purposes of domestication, is certainly more valuable, 

 upon the whole, than any other, except common 

 poultry, and, in the individual bird, far more valuable 

 than even these. If we except the potato, this bird 

 must be regarded as by far the most valuable natural 

 production of the American continent which has been 

 introduced, and, to a great extent, naturalised in 

 Europe. We need hardly say that we allude to 



MEI.EAGIUS, the turkey ; neither need we give any 

 long description of the external appearance of a bird 

 of which there is but one species, that species gene- 

 rally known, and more rarely breaking into varieties 

 than any otner with which we are acquainted. 



The generic characters are : the bill short and 

 thick ; the head and upper part of the neck covered 

 with a naked skin, beset with tubercles ; the throat 

 furnished with a longitudinal pendulous and knobby 

 wattle, which is partially covered with hairs. There 

 is also a conical fleshy knob, thinly scattered with 

 hairs on the tip, and it arises from the junction o$ 

 the bill with the forehead. When the bird is in a 

 state of repose, and not disturbed nor alarmed, this 

 appendage is short ; and when the bird is strongly 

 excited, it enlarges till it covers the whole bill, and 

 hangs two or three inches over its tip. The neck is 

 of moderate dimensions, both as to length and to 

 thickness ; and to the lower portion of it there is at- 

 tached an appendage of a fleshy texture, furnished at 

 the end with a brush of hard black hairs, about nine 

 inches long. 



There is, as we have said, but one species, the 

 common turkey (Mekagru gallo-pavo), which is a 

 favourite bird in o.ur farm yards, though much inferior 

 to what it is in a state of nature ; and, indeed, those 



who have seen only the domestic bird in Europe, 

 even in those places where it seems to thrive best, 

 can have no idea of the splendour of its appearance 

 iti a. state of nature. The male is then, when full 

 grown, little less than four feet in length, and at 

 least five in the extent of the wings. The body is 

 thick, rather lengthened, and covered with feathers, 

 which are very abrupt at their terminations. The 

 webs of these feathers at the basal part consist of 

 sooty-coloured down, beyond which they are dusky, 

 and terminate in a broad band of rich metallic lustre, 

 the colours of which are very varied when the light 

 falls variously upon them changing from bright gol- 

 den colour, through different shades of copper, bronze, 

 violet, and purple. On the back the feathers have, 

 beyond this, a terminal band of velvet black, without 

 any reflections. The metallic glosses are richest on 

 the upper parts of the back, and the black deepens 

 towards the rump and tail-coverts, though on the 

 latter there is a broad band of bright coppery lustre, 

 and a slight bay margin beyond the velvet band ; and 

 the last ones have more of the bay colour, crossed 

 with narrow bars of metallic green. The feathers 

 on much of the under part are dark, and glossed with 

 reflections, but of less intensity than those on the 

 back. The wings are hollow and rounded, and do 

 not reach beyond the insertion of the tail. They 

 consist of twenty-eight quills each, of which the first 

 is very short, and the fourth and fifth the longest in 

 the wing. The coverts next the scapulars are like 

 the feathers on the body ; those next the quills are 

 copper and violet, beyond which there is a black band 

 and a whitish tip. The bastard wing, the coverts of 

 the primaries, and the primaries themselves, are black- 

 ish, banded with wkite ; the second are white, banded 

 with black, but with a trace of rusty yellow, which in- 

 creases on the tertiary quills, and is there marked 

 with some metallic reflections. The tail is com- 

 posed of eighteen hard and strong feathers, of a 

 rust colour, mottled with black, crossed by narrow 

 lines of the same colour, and with a broad black bar 

 nearly at the tips. These tail-feathers are very strong, 

 and more than fifteen inches in length in the full 

 grown bird when in a state of nature ; so that when 

 the tail is spread out like a fan, as the bird is excited, 

 and parades, struts, and wheels about, the tail, though 

 it wants the rich tints and light and airy spread, like 

 that of the peacock, is far from being destitute of 

 grandeur. The legs and feet are very stout and 

 rather long, the tarsi measuring about six inches. 

 They are covered with imbricated scales of a five- 

 sided shape, and have a strong and compressed, but 

 rather blunt, pointed spur on the insides. The three 

 front toes are connected at the base by a membrane, 

 the middle one being about four inches in length, each 

 of the lateral ones about two inches, and the hind 

 toe, which touches the ground only with its tip, is 

 about one inch in length. The female is consider- 

 ably smaller ; and the head and neck are covered by 

 irregular feathers of a dull grey colour. The feathers 

 on the back have the tips rusty ; the tubercle over 

 the bill is merely rudimental, and the tuft on the 

 lower part of the neck is generally wanting alto- 

 gether. There is, however, a concealed rudiment of 

 it, and when the females become barren, which is 

 said to be pretty frequently the case with the wild 

 birds, this appendage makes its appearance, though 

 it is always much more slender than in the males. 

 The hunters who are engaged in the capture of wild 



