594 AVES—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, which 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 Chins; 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. 
TadE WILD TURKEY. 
Tuts elegant bird is the original stock from which all the common domes- 
cic turkeys have been produced. It is a native of America, and is found ip 
all the western parts of the United States and North America, from Lake 
Superior to the Isthmus of Panama. They abound in the forests and un- 
1 Meleagris gallopavo, Lin. The genus Meleagris has the bill short and thick, base 
covered with a naked skin; head and upper part of the neck invested with a naked, tuber 
culated skin; a loose caruncle on the upper part of the bill; throat with a longituding’ 
vendulous, and carunculated wattle; tarsi of the mele with an obtuse and weak spur 
wings short; tail of eighteen feathers spreading int-2 circle. 
