116 LIFE MISTOEIES OF NOETH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



having found eggs of tliis species as late as July 10. Incubation lasts about 

 four weeks, and this duty is entirely performed by the female. 



In shape, the eggs of the Wild Turkey are usually ovate, occasionally 

 they are elongate ovate. The ground color varies from pale cream}- -white to 

 creamy buff. They are more or less heavily marked with well-defined spots 

 and dots of pale chocolate and reddish brown. In an occasional set these spots 

 are pale lavender. Generally the markings are all small, ranging in size from 

 a No. 6 shot to that of dust shot, but an exceptional set is sometimes heavily 

 covered with both spots and blotches of the size of buckshot, and even larger. 

 The majority of eggs of this species in the U. S. National ]\Iuseum collection, 

 and such as I have examined elsewhere, reseml^le in coloration the figured type 

 of 31. gallopavo mexkanas, but average, as a rule, somewhat smaller in size. 



The average measurement of thirty-eight eggs in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 61.5 by 46.5 millimetres. The largest egg measures 68.5 

 by 46, the smallest 59 by 45 millimetres. 



The type specimen. No. 21069 (PI. 3, Fig. 14), selected from an incomplete 

 set of six eggs from the Bendire collection, was obtained by him through 

 the kindness of Bvt. Maj. S. L. Woodward, Tenth Cavalry, U. S. Army, near 

 Onion Creek, Archer County, Texas, May 7, 1874. Tliis specimen shows the 

 lavender markings referred to above.^ 



40. Meleagris gallopavo mexicana (Gould). 



MEXICAN TURKEY. 



Meleagris mexicana Gould, Proceedings Zoological Society, 1856, 61. 

 Meleagris gallopavo var. mexicana Baird, History of North American Birds, iii, 1874, 

 410. 



(B 458, C 379, R 470, C 553, U 310a.) 



Geographical range: Table lands of Mexico, and north to southern border of 

 United States from western Texas to Arizona; south to Vera Cruz (temperate region). 



The breeding range of the Mexican Turkey extends from the mountainous 

 portions of southern and western Colorado, through similar regions in New 

 Mexico, Arizona, western and southwestern Texas, into Mexico. In southern 

 Colorado the bird is rare, if still found there, while specimens from the Lower 

 Rio Grande region in Texas seem to be intermediate between true M. gallopavo 

 and the M. gallopavo mexicana, leaning more toward the latter. 



This magnificent game bird, the progenitor of our domestic Turkey, is 

 more of a mountain-loving species than the eastern bird, and is still reasonably 

 abundant in the wilder portions of western Texas, the Territories of New Mexico 

 and Arizona, and very common in portions of Mexico. I believe this sub- 

 species attains a greater size" than M. gallopavo. I shot a specimen weighing 



'Since tbis article was written, Mr. W. E. D. Scott has separated the Florida Turkey from the 

 common Wild Turkey and described it under tiie name of Meleagris gallopavo osceola, in Auk, Vol. Vli, 1890, 

 p. 376. 



