380 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Length: male 48-50 inches; female 36; weight: male 16-30, or even 

 40-45 ]X)unds; female 12 potinds. 



Wild turkeys formerly inhabited eastern North America from Maine, 

 Ontario, and Dakota to the gulf coast, but have long since disappeared 

 from New England and New York. A few remained in Clinton, Fulton 

 and Keating counties, Pennsylvania, until the close of the 19th century. 

 These are the nearest native wild turkeys we have at present . In 1 844 , accord- 

 ing to DeKay, they still were found in Sullivan, Rockland, Orange, Allegany 

 and Cattaraugus counties of New York State, but must have been destroyed 

 soon thereafter as I can find no subsequent records for the State. In colonial 

 times they were common in New York. DeVries, in the journal of his 

 voyages to New Netherlands, frequently speaks of them, and mentions 

 shooting one near New Amsterdam which weighed 30 pounds. In 1641, 

 at Fort Orange (Albany), there were "so many turkeys that they came to 

 the houses and hogpens to feed" [Rev. J. Megapolensis, MunseU, Annals 

 of Albany, 9: 133; also N. Y. Hist. Soc. Col. Ser. 2, 3, 150]. 



Order COLUTvlBAE 



Pigeons 



Head small, no frontal antiae, but the frontal feathers forming an 

 abruptly convex outline at base of bill; neck short; bill horny at tip, com- 

 pressed with a tumid swelling near the base about the nostril ; wings pointed, 

 flat, powerful, with rapid, whistling flight; legs short, the tarsus scutellate 

 or feathered on point; no plumes; feathers loosely inserted; body plump, 

 full breasted; front toes cleft, rear toe insistent, hence better perchers than 

 Gallinae and more arboreal in habits; plumage without aftershafts, oil 

 gland bare or wanting; gall bladder usually wanting; coeca small or want- 

 ing; two carotids; crop large, secreting a milky fluid to aid in nurturing 

 the young; gizzard muscular; palate schizognathous; nasals schizorhinal ; 

 basipterygoids present; sternum doubly notched, or notched and windowed 

 on each side; humerus with strong pectoral ridge; femorocaudal and its 

 accessory, semitendinosus and its accessory, and normally the ambiens, 

 all present. Pigeons walk with a peculiar motion of the head and neck 

 in unison with their footsteps; their notes are a plaintive cooing; they are 

 famously monogamous, the male sharing the care of the young. The nest 

 is a wide, flat structure, the eggs two, white and nearly elliptical in shape. 

 The young are altricial and ptilopaedic. 



