330 VERTEBRATA. AVES. 



great beauty, has recently been discovered in the 

 south of Mexico. The Turkeys are, excepting the 

 Ostriches, among the largest of birds, the male Wild 

 Turkey of the United States (M. Gallopavo) attain- 

 ing the length of nearly four feet, the extent of five, 

 and the height, when erect, of three ; while fifteen 

 or twenty pounds may be esteemed their average 

 weight : the writer has partaken of the flesh of one 

 which weighed twenty-five pounds after being pluck- 

 ed ; while Audubon speaks of those which have at- 

 tained the enormous weight of forty pounds. 



As a genus, the Turkeys are distinguished by 

 having the head and upper part of the neck covered 

 with a naked warty skin; loose appendages, called 

 wattles, or caruncles, are attached the one to the 

 throat, and the other to the forehead; the latter, 

 when the male is excited, swells so as to cover and 

 hang over the beak. From the breast, in both sexes, 

 but most apparent in the male, hangs a tuft of stiff 

 bristly hairs ; the coverts of the tail, which are large, 

 can be erected like a fan. 



The Wild Turkey appears to have been domestic- 

 ated in England very quickly after its discovery ; but 

 the exact time and circumstances of its introduction 

 nave not been recorded. It has much degenerated in 

 size and beauty. In its native condition it still inha- 

 bits the Southern and Western States, and Mexico, 

 in considerable abundance ; but from the Atlantic 

 country it has been extirpated by the increase of po- 

 pulation. The head of this fine bird is small in pro- 

 portion ; the naked skin which covers it is pale blue, 



