THE WILD TURKEY. 217 



short and incapable of elongation ; and the fasciculus 

 on the breast is not always present. The prevailing- 

 tinge of the plumage is dusky gray, each feather having 

 a metallic band, less brilliant than that of the male, then 

 a blackish band, and a grayish terminal fringe. On the 

 feathers of the neck and under surface the black band 

 is for the most part obliterated. All the parts, without 

 exception, are duller than those of the male ; less white 

 exists on the primaiy wing-feathers, and the seconda- 

 ries are entirely destitute of bands. The tail is similar 

 in colour to that of the male. 



Until the naked membrane acquires its tinge of red 

 it is not easy to distinguish between the two sexes ; but 

 on the approach of the first winter, the young males 

 show a rudiment of the tuft of hairs upon the breast, 

 consisting at first of a mere tubercle ; in the second 

 year the tuft is about three inches long; and in the 

 third the bird attains its adult form, although it cer- 

 tainly continues to increase in size and beauty for several 

 years. Females have their full size and colouring at 

 the end of four years ; they then possess the pectoral 

 fascicle, four or five inches in length, but much thinner 

 than in the male. This appendage is more frequently 

 observed, and is acquired at an earlier period of life, in 

 the wild than in the domestic female. 



The Wild Turkey has been found native from the 

 north-western territory of the United States to the 

 Isthmus of Panama. Towards the north Canada ap- 

 pears to be the limit of its range ; but from this country, 

 as well as from the more densely peopled parts of the 

 American Union, where it was once extremely abun- 

 dant, it is gradually disappearing before the encroach- 

 ments of the lord of the creation. To the west the 

 Rocky Mountains seem to form a barrier that it has 

 never passed, if indeed it has reached them; but the 



