274 CoueEs, The Turkey Question. rine 
withstanding the fact that, as based on the Florida bird, it prob- 
ably indicates the form now known as JZ. g. osceola. 
3. MW. palawa Barton, Med.and Phys. Journ. II, 1806, p. 163, 
is another name for the United States bird, which may be passed 
by as resting on no description. 
4. We next come to IZ sylvestris ViriLu., Nouv. Dict. d’ Hist. 
Nat. IX, 1817, p. 447, and J. fera, VIFILE-, Gal) Os) Tir sole: 
to, pl. 201, both belonging to the United States bird, and one of 
them being tenable for it, if none of the foregoing be available. 
It is thus seen that all the distinctive names of Turkeys belong 
to the United States bird, down to the time when Gould dis- 
tinguished the other one; and that his name is a pure synonym 
for the Linnzan ga//opavo after elimination therefrom of our com- 
mon Wild Turkey. How then can the latter be considered the 
true gallopavo, and mexicana be tenable? 
Inspection of the Linnean basis of gadlopavo will show its 
thoroughly composite character. The diagnosis, habitat, etc., 
cover both forms. The first citation is of the Fn. Svec. 1746, p- 
198, which is of course the domestic bird. The second is Ray, as 
above noted, which is the New England bird. The third is 
Albin, 1740, pl. 35, which is the domestic bird. Then under B 
comes the ga//opavo of Gesner, Aldrovandus, Belon, Jonston, Wil- 
lughby, Ray again, and Brisson’s pl. 16 —such references to the 
fathers and patriarchs including of course all Turkeys, though 
mainly bearing upon the domestic race. Finally, the Linnzean y is 
the “gallopavo cristatus,’ being the crested variety of the domestic 
bird, as figured by Albin, 1738, pl. 33. 
If I be wrong in this contention, it should be easy to refute me, 
as I advance no new facts— there are probably none to be found, 
so well is the whole case already known; and unless I have for- 
gotten or overlooked. some material point which will reverse my 
decision, we must use JZ. gaZ/ojpavo for the Mexican bird, and find 
some other —I care not whether americana, palawa, sylvestris, OY 
jfera—for the common wild Turkey of the United States. 
The error in this case is probably traceable to Baird, 1858, 
when mexicana was adopted; whence it went into the ‘ Hist. N. 
A. Birds’ in 1874, as a matter of course, and thence by an easy 
transition was imported into our ‘Check-List’; though I had 
meanwhile set the matter right in the ‘Key’ and elsewhere. 
