THE WILD TURKEY. 



Meleagris gallopavo. 

 Meleagris gallopavo silvestris. 

 Meleagris gallopavo osceola. 

 Meleagris gallopavo intermedia. 

 Meleagris gallopavo merriami. 



America has given to the world its largest game bird 

 and perhaps most important domestic fowl the turkey. 

 It is purely American, and its ancestry goes back a long 

 way, for it existed here in far-off Tertiary times, por- 

 tions of the skeleton of a turkey having been found in 

 the Miocene deposits of Colorado, and the bones of 

 other species in the post-Pliocene of New Jersey. Of 

 these last, one was about the size of the existing turkey, 

 but taller, while another was much smaller. At this 

 time, the mastodon lived along the Atlantic coast, while 

 the far older turkeys of Colorado had as associates the 

 huge Brontotherium and many other creatures long 

 extinct. 



When the white men came to these shores they found 

 turkeys in plenty. The flesh constituted a good share 

 of the food of the natives, who wore cloaks or robes 

 made of turkey feathers. Not very long after the 

 discovery of the New World the bird was taken to 



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