MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO, VAR. GALLOPAVO (Livy). 
WILD TURKEY. 
Specific Character—The naked skin of the head and neck is blue; the 
excrescences purple red. The legs are red. the feathers of the neck and body 
generally are very broad, abruptly truncate and each one well defined and scale 
like ; the exposed portion coppery bronze with a bright coppery reflection in some 
lights, in the specimens before us chiefly on the under parts. Each feather is 
abruptly margined with velvet black, the bronze assuming a greenish or purplish 
shade near the line of junction, and the bronze itself sometimes with a greenish 
reflection in some lights. The black is opaque, except along the extreme tip, 
where there is a metallic gloss. The feathers of the lower back and rump are 
black with little or no copper gloss. 
The feathers of the sides behind, and the coverts, upper and under, are of a 
very dark purplish chestnut, with purplish metallic reflections near the end and a 
subterminal bar of black ; the tips are of the opaque purplish chestnut referred 
to. The concealed portion of the coverts is dark chestnut barred rather finely 
with black, the black wider than the interspaces. The tail feathers are dark 
brownish chestnut, with numerous transverse bars of black, which when most dis- 
tinct, are about a quarter of an inch wide and about double their interspaces ; 
their extreine tip for about half an inch is plain chestnut, lighter than the ground 
colour, and there is a broad subterminal bar of black about two inches wide on the 
outer feathers and narrowing to about three-quarters of an inch to the central 
ones. The innermost pair scarcely show this band and the others are all much 
broken and confused. In addition to the black bars on each feather the chestnut 
interspaces are sprinkled with black. The black bands are all most distinct on 
_the inner webs; the interspaces are all considerably lighter below than above. 
There are no whitish tips whatever to the tail or its coverts. The feathers 
on the middle of the belly are downy, opaque and tipped obscurely with rusty 
whitish. 
The wing coverts are like the back ; the quills, however, are blackish brown, 
with numerous transverse bars of white, half the width of the interspaces. The 
exposed surfaces of the wing, however, and most of the inner secondaries are 
tinged with brownish rusty, the uppermost ones with a dull copper or greenish 
gloss. 
The female differs in smaller size, less brilliant colours, absence generally of 
bristles on the breast and of spur, and a much smaller fleshy process above the 
base of the bill. 
Male: Length 48.00 to 50.00 inches; extent 60.00 inches; wing 21.00 
inches ; tail 18.50 inches. Weight 16 to 35 lb. Female. Weight about 12 lb. ; 
measurements smaller in proportion. 
Habitat.—Eastern province of the United States and Canada. West along 
the timbered river valleys towards the Rocky Mountains ; south to the gulf coast. 
In North America there are two varieties of wild turkey, the Mexican, which 
has the feathers of the rump, the tail coverts and tail feathers tipped with whitish 
- instead of dark rusty as in the other variety, the common wild turkey of eastern 
and southern United States and Canada. It is generally conceded now that it 
is to the Mexican variety we owe the origin of the domestic bird, some well-bred. 
ones of which have been known to attain the weight of 45 Ib. 
33 (C.) 
