1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



141 



THE ■WILD TUEKEY. 



We have had the pleasure of standing in the 

 door of our own ]og cottage and seeing the 

 Wild Turkey gleaning cautiously and warily 

 in our fields, and roaming in all its native free- 

 dom in the adjoining forests. It is a noble 

 bird, and we have never wondered that Ben- 

 jamin Franklin should have preferred it as the 

 emblem of the United States, instead of the 

 one now perched on our national standards. 

 The above illustration represents the Wild 

 Turkey as seen humped up in the cold weather 

 of our northern winters. 



The wild turkey (/kf. gallopavo^ Linn.) says 

 the American Cyclopcedia, is about 3^ feet long 

 and 5 in extent of wmgs, weighing from 15 to 



20 lbs., and sometimes more ; the naked skin 

 of the head and neck is livid blue, and the ex- 

 crescences purplish red ; the general color is 

 copper bronze, with green and metallic reflec- 

 tions, each feather with a velvet-black margin ; 

 quills brown, closely barred with white ; tail 

 feathers chestnut, narrowly barred with black, 

 and the tip with a very wide subterminal black 

 bar ; the female is smaller and less brilliant, 

 without spurs, often without bristles on the 

 breast, and with a smaller fleshy process above 

 the base of the bill. It has a crop and giz- 

 zard, and an intestine 4 times the length of 

 the body ; the cartilaginous tissue of the 

 stomach is less hard than in that of the com- 



