No. 133.] 163 



(breadth, we suppose, is meant, wings extended.) The bill is 

 short and robust, measuring two inches and a half to the corner 

 of the mouth: it is reddish, and horn color at tip : the superior 

 mandible is vaulted, declining at tip, and overhangs the inferior, 

 being longer and wider ; it is covered at base by a naked, cere- 

 like membrane in which the nostrils are situated, they being half 

 closed by a turgid membrane, and opening downwards ; the infe- 

 rior mandible slightly ascends towards the tip ; the head, which 

 is very small in proportion to the body, and half of the neck, are 

 covered with a naked bluish skin, on which are a number of red 

 wart- like elevations ; the naked skin extends further downwards 

 on the interior surface of the neck, where it is flaccid and mem- 

 brrnous", forming an undulating appendage, on the lower part of 

 which are cavernous elevations or wattles. A wrinkled, fleshy, 

 caruncle, hairy, arises from the bill at its junction with the tore- 

 head ; when the bird is quiescent, this is not much more than an 

 inch and a half long ; but when he is excited by love or rage, it 

 becomes elongated, so as to cover the bill entirely, and depend 

 two or three inches below it. The neck is of a moderate length 

 and thickness, bearing on its lower portion a pendant fascicle of 

 black rigid hairs, about nine inches long, and also called the 

 pectoral appendage." We omit much of this description ; it is 

 minute and long, but like the whole account of this interesting 

 bird, is ably and clearly given. The female, or hen turkey, is 

 considerably smaller in size, being three feet and a quarter long, 

 the bill and feet resemble those of the male, but are proportion- 

 ably smaller, the latter being destitute of even a rudiment of 

 spur. These authors remark, that the female which furnished 

 the above description, though certainly adult, had not attained 

 to its full size and most perfect beauty. It was procured in the 

 month of March, on St. John's river, Florida. The male was 

 selected from among many fine specimens shot in the month of 

 April, near Engineer cantonment, on the Missouri. It weighed 

 twenty pounds, but as the males are very thin at that season, 

 when in good condition, it must have weighed much more. On 

 the approach of the first winter, t^e young males show a rudi- 

 ment of the beard or fascicle of hairs on the breast, consisting of 

 a mere tubercle, and attempt to strut and gobble ; the second 



