415 



the fact that it was habitually reared by the Mexicans at the time of the conquest, 

 and introduced from Mexico or New Spain into Europe early in the sixteenth 

 century, either directly or from the West India islands into which it had been 

 previously carried. 



It has, however, always been a matter of surprise that the wild turkey of 

 eastern North America did not assimilate more closely to the domestic bird in 

 colour, habits and by interbreeding, although until recently no suspicion was 

 entertained that they might belong to different species. Such, however, now 

 appears to be the fact as I will endeavour to show. 



The proposition I present is that there are two species, or at least races, of 

 wild turkey in North America, one confined to the more eastern and southern 

 United States, the other to the southern Rocky Mountains and adjacent part of 

 Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona ; that the latter extends along eastern 

 Mexico as far south at least as Orizaba, and that it is from this Mexican species, 

 and not from that of eastern North America, that this domestic turkey is derived. 



In the proceedings of the zoological society of London for 1856 (page 61) 

 Mr. Gould characterises as new a wild turkey from the mines of Real del Norte 

 in Mexico, under the name of Meleagris Mexicana, and is the first to sugge st that 

 it is derived from the domesticated bird and not from the common wild turkey of 

 eastern North America, on which he retains the name of Meleagris gallopavo, of 

 Linnaeus. He stated that the peculiarities of the new species consist chiefly in 

 the creamy -white tips of the tail feathers and of the upper tail coverts, with some 

 other points of minor importance. I suggest that the wild turkey of New 

 Mexico as referred to by various writers, belongs to this new species and not to 

 the M. gallopavo. 



In 1858 in the report of the birds collected by the Pacific Railroad expedition 

 (vol. ix., p. 618, of the series of Pacific Railroad Reports), I referred to this sub- 

 ject and established the existence in North America of two species of wild turkey, 

 one belonging to eastern, the other to middle North America. Much additional 

 material has since corroborated this view, and while the M. gallopavo is found 

 along the Missouri River and eastward and extends into eastern Texas, the other 

 is now known to belong to the Llano Estacado and other parts of western Texas 

 to New Mexico and to Arizona. 



The recent acquisition of a fine male turkey by the Smithsonian Institute, 

 from the vicinity of Mount Orizaba, in Mexico, and its comparison with a skin 

 from Santa Fe, enables me to assert the positive identity of our western and the 

 Mexican species, and one readily separable from the better known wild bird of 

 the eastern United States. There is now little reason to doubt that the true 

 origin of the barnyard turkey is to be sought for in the Mexican species, and not 

 in the North American, an hypothesis which explains the fact of the difficulty of 

 establishing a cross between our wild and tame birds. 



The presumed difference between the two species may be briefly indicated as 

 consisting principally in the creamy or fulvous white of the tips of the tail feathers 

 and of the feathers overlying .the base of the tail and of the hinder part of the 

 back of the Mexican and typical barnyard birds, as compared with the decided 

 chestnut brown of the same parts in the eastern wild turkey. There are other 

 differences but they are less evident, and those indicated will readily serve to 

 distinguish the two species. 



The true wild bird of eastern North America always has the tips of the tail 

 feathers and upper tail covert of a chestnut brown colour ; the Mexican species 

 and its descendant of the barnyard never exhibit this feature. 



