186 WILD TURKEYS. 



310. Meleagris gallopavo Linn. WILD TURKEY. The Wild 

 Turkey may be distinguished from the common domestic race chiefly by the 

 chestnut instead of white tips to the upper tail-coverts and tail. " $ ad. L.,' 

 about 48-00-50 ; W., 21-00; T., 18-50; Weight 16-40 Ibs." (Ridgw.). 



Range. Eastern United States from Pennsylvania southward to Florida, 

 west to Wisconsin, the Indian Territory, and Texas. 



Washington, rare P. R. 



Nest, on the ground, at the base of a bush or tree. Eggs, ten to fourteen, 

 pale cream-buft, finely and evenly speckled with grayish brown, 2-45 x 1-95. 



This noble game bird is rapidly decreasing in numbers, and in 

 comparatively few years will doubtless be found only in the parts of 

 its range which are unfit for the habitation of man. 



Except during the breeding season, Wild Turkeys are found in 

 small flocks of six to twelve or fifteen individuals of both sexes. They 

 roost preferably in the trees in wooded bottom-lands, returning each 

 night to the same locality. 



At the opening of the breeding season in March the male begins to 

 gobble. As a rule, he calls only early in the morning, before leaving 

 his roost. Later he sails to the ground and at once begins his search 

 for breakfast, or, attracted by the plaintive piping of some female, he 

 struts and displays his charms before her. It is at this time that bat- 

 tles between the males occur. They are polygamists, and the victor 

 becomes sultan of the harem. During the period of incubation, and 

 while the young require their mother's care, the females do not associ- 

 ate with the males, who then flock together. 



The calls of both sexes so closely resemble those of the domestic 

 birds that it requires a practiced ear to distinguish them. In locali- 

 ties where both birds might be expected to occur, 1 could never be 

 sure whether I was listening to the challenge of some defiant gobbler 

 perched in a cypress in the valley below, or to the vainglorious effort 

 of the lord of the poultry yard. 



The Wild Turkey is divided by ornithologists into four closely re- 

 lated races. Meleagris gallopavo is the bird of the Eastern States; 

 M. g. osceola, as stated below, is found in southern Florida; M. g. 

 ellioti inhabits southeastern Texas and northeastern Mexico ; M. g. 

 mexicana ranges from western Texas to Arizona, and south over the 

 table lands of Mexico to Vera Cruz. It is this race, with white-tipped 

 upper tail-coverts, which was first introduced into Europe, where it 

 had become established as early as 1530. 



31 Ob. M. g. osceola Xcott. FLORIDA WILD TURKEY. Resembles 

 M. gallopavo, but is smaller, and the primaries, instead of being regularly and 

 widely barred with white, as in that bird, have much smaller, broken -white 

 markings. Weight, $ 12-22 Ibs.; $ 4-75-9 Ibs. (Scott, Auk, ix, 1892, p. 115), 



Range. Southern Florida. 



