206 GALLIFORMES 



CHAP. 



rusty spotting. Phasidus is not gregarious. The rock-loving 

 Numida ptilorTiyncha attains an altitude of nine thousand feet. 



Sub-fam. 2. Meleagrinae. Of the Turkeys, 1 there are only two 

 species, Meleagris gallipavo and M. ocellata. The former has three 

 races distinguished by the tail and its upper coverts being tipped 

 with white, buff, and chestnut respectively the united range ex- 

 tending from Southern Canada to Mexico through the Eastern and 

 South-Western States. They are coppery-bronze, with purplish- 

 green and golden sheen and black markings ; the remiges being 

 brown barred with white, and the tail black and brown with broad 

 dark sub-terminal band. The reddish head and neck are nearly bare, 

 shewing wrinkled warty skin and a pendent erectile process on 

 the forehead ; a bunch of long black bristles decorates the chest 

 of the male, which has a stout spur on each metatarsus. The 

 bill and feet are red. M. ocellata of Yucatan, British Honduras, 

 and G-uatemala, has black plumage, tipped with brassy-green, and 

 fringed with greenish-copper, that becomes redder below; the rump 

 region is steel-blue, and brilliant ocelli of green-blue margined with 

 copper mark the ends of the greyish rectrices and their coverts. 

 The frontal caruncle and the head are blue, with red tip and ex- 

 crescences respectively, while the pectoral tuft is absent. 



The wild Turkey is wary and extremely quick of foot, spend- 

 ing the day chiefly upon the ground and roosting high in the 

 trees ; it frequents wooded country, and feeds upon plants, seeds, 

 nuts and other fruits, with lizards and insects. In spring the 

 males fight viciously, and show off before the assembled hens ; 

 strutting around with erect, outspread tails and drooping wings, 

 while uttering puffing and gobbling noises. Each cock having 

 secured a mate or two, breeding takes place, after which the 

 sexes separate, but combine again in autumn and wander widely 

 in search of food. A hole, scraped under some log or tuft of 

 herbage, and lined with dry leaves, receives the yellowish-white 

 eggs with red-brown spots; the number varying from ten to 

 eighteen, or even more if several hens co-operate. 



Sub-fam. 3. Phasianinae. Among these a detailed description 

 is unnecessary of the fine blue, green, and rufous plumage of the Pea- 

 cock (Pavo cristatus), or of the green, purple, copper, and gold ocelli 



1 This name, and the Latin Meleagris, seein to have originally belonged to the 

 Guinea-Fowl. M. gallipavo, the origin of our farm-yard Turkey, was domesticated 

 in Europe by about 1530. Cf. A. Newton, Did. Birds, 1896, pp. 994-996. 



