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fa the fact that it was habitually reared by the Mexicans at the time of the conquest, 
and introduced from Mexico or New Spain into Europe early in the sixteenth 
century, either directly or from the West India islands into which it had been 
_ previously carried. 
a It has, however, always been a matter of surprise that the wild turkey of 
- eastern North America did not assimilate more closely to the domestic bird in 
colour, habits and by interbreeding, although until recently no suspicion was 
entertained that they might belong to different species. Such, however, now 
ps ppears to be the fact as I will endeavour to show. 
a The proposition I present is that there are two species, or at least races, of 
wild turkey in North America, one confined to the more eastern and southern 
_ United States, the other to the southern Rocky Mountains and adjacent part of 
_ Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona; that the latter extends along eastern 
_ Mexico as far south at least as Orizaba, and that it is from this Mexican species, 
and not from that of eastern North America, that this domestic turkey is derived. 
__ Inthe proceedings of the zoological society of London for 1856 (page 61) 
Mr. Gould characterises as new a wild turkey from the mines of Real del Norte 
in Mexico, under the name of Meleagris Mexicana, and is the first to suggest that 
_ it is derived from the domesticated bird and not from the common wild turkey of 
eastern North America, on which he retains the name of Meleagris gallopavo, of 
_ Linnzus. He stated that the peculiarities of the new species consist chiefly in 
_ the creamy-white tips of the tail feathers and of the upper tail coverts, with some 
_ other points of minor importance. I suggest that the wild turkey of New 
_ Mexico as referred to by various writers, belongs to this new species and not to 
_ the M. gallopavo. ) 
3 In 1858 in the report of the birds collected by the Pacific Railroad expedition 
(vol. Ix., p. 618, of the series of Pacific Railroad Reports), I referred to this sub- 
Jject and established the existence in North America of two species of wild turkey, 
_ one belonging to eastern, the other to middle North America. Much additional 
_ material has since corroborated this view, and while the M. gallopavo is found 
_ along the Missouri River and eastward and extends into eastern Texas, the other 
| is now known to belong to the Llano Estacado and other parts of western Texas 
_ to New Mexico and to Arizona. 
_ ___ The recent acquisition of a fine male turkey by the Smithsonian Institute, 
_ from the vicinity of Mount Orizaba, in Mexico, and its comparison with a skin 
_ from Santa Fe, enables me to assert the positive identity of our western and the 
_ Mexican species, and one readily separable from the better known wild bird of 
_ the eastern United States. There is now little reason to doubt that the true 
origin of the barnyard turkey is to be sought for in the Mexican species, and not 
in the North American, an hypothesis which explains the fact of the difficulty of 
establishing a cross between our wild and tame birds. 
The presumed difference between the two species may be briefly indicated as 
_ consisting principally in the creamy or fulvous white of the tips of the tail feathers 
__ and of the feathers overlying the base of the tail and of the hinder part of the 
back of the Mexican and typical barnyard birds, as compared with the decided 
_ chestnut brown of the same parts in the eastern wild turkey. There are other 
differences but they are less evident, and those indicated will readily serve to 
_ distinguish the two species. 
___The true wild bird of eastern North America always has the tips of the tail 
_ feathers and upper tail covert of a chestnut brown colour; the Mexican species 
_ and its descendant of the barnyard never exhibit this feature. 
3 . 
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