l8o OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



of the feathers of the neck, makes the back of the turkey 

 convex. The usual gait of the bird is a very deliberate walk. 



The male and female differ conspicuously in so many points 

 that the sex of an adult bird is distinguished without difficulty. 

 As a rule the males are much larger than the females of the 

 same stock. In colored varieties the males are more strongly 

 pigmented, and the shades of color in them are more pro- 

 nounced. The head characters of the male are much more 

 prominent in size and more brilliant in color. Both sexes have 

 the power of inflating the loose appendages of the head and 

 neck. In the male this is highly developed ; in the female only 

 perceptible. The male has a brushlike tuft of coarse hair grow- 

 ing from the upper part of the breast. This tuft, called the 

 beard, is black in all varieties. The female is usually shy and 

 has a low, plaintive call. The male challenges attention and 

 often struts about with his tail elevated and spread in a circle 

 like a fan, wings trailing on the ground, the feathers all over 

 the body erected until he looks twice his natural size, and at 

 frequent intervals vociferously uttering his peculiar ' ' gobble- 

 gobble-gobble." The male turkey has short spurs like those of 

 the male fowl. 



The name ttirkey was erroneously given in England when 

 the birds were first known there and it was supposed that they 

 came from Turkey. The adult male is called a turkey cock, also 

 a torn-turkey (sometimes simply torn} and a gobbler. The adult 

 female is called a turkey hen, or a hen turkey, the order of the 

 terms being immaterial. Young turkeys before the sex can be 

 distinguished are variously called young turkeys, turkey chicks, 

 and poults, the latter being considered by poultrymen the proper 

 technical name. After the sex can be distinguished, the terms 

 cockerel and pullet are applied to turkeys in the same way 

 as to fowls. 



Origin. The turkey is a native of North America. Although 

 not as widely distributed as before the country was settled, it is 



