594 



AYES— WILD TURKEY 



backwards over the sides of the neck, and may be raised or depressed at will. 

 A few minute hairs are scattered over the cheeks, Avhich are of a livid com- 

 plexion. The feathers of the back of the neck are tinged with a mixture of 

 green and gold and bordered with black, those of the back and the upper tail- 

 coverts are bright yellow, the latter terminating in a crimson border. 



These magnificent birds are natives of China ; and it was warmly main- 

 tained by Buffon, in accordance with his theory of the degeneration of ani- 

 mals, that they were merely a variety of the common pheasant, which has 

 assumed a more splendid plumage, in consequence of the superior fineness 

 of the climate in which they dwelt. Unfortunately for this hypothesis, the 

 common pheasant is also widely spread throughout the same region, in 

 which it preserves all the characters by which it is distinguished in Europe, 

 and never produces in its wild state a mixed breed with its supposed variety. 

 No naturalist since Buffon has imagined such a transformation possible. 



THE WILD TURKEY.i 



This elegant bird is the original stock from which all the common domes- 

 tic turkeys have been produced. It is a native of America, and is found in 

 all the Avestern parts of the United States and North America, from Lake 

 Superior to the Isthmus of Panama. They abound in the forests and un- 



^ Melca^ris gaUopavo, Lin. The genus Meleagrls has the bill short and thick, base 

 covered with a naked skin; head and upper part of the neck invested with a naked, tuher- 

 culated skin; a loose caruncle on the upper part of the bill; throat with a long^iludinal, 

 pendulous, and carunculated wattle; tarsi of the male with an obtuse and weak spur; 

 wings short ; ti\il of eighteen feathers spreading into a circle. 



