BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 439 



downy feathers and with true feathers extending upward on nape in 

 females, the skin of throat loose and sometimes, at least, developed into a 

 more or less distinct "dewlap" ; a fleshy but flabby appendage on anterior 

 portion of forehead, this more or less erect when contracted but pendant 

 and much enlarged in adult males during the pairing season — much smaller 

 or rudimentary in females. Feathers of lower neck, back, rump, and 

 underparts, together with smaller wing coverts and tail coverts, dis- 

 tinctly outlined, very broad, and with truncate or subtruncate tips, those 

 of lower abdomen and anal region soft, more downy, those of thighs 

 shorter and close, but broad, rounded, and distinctly outlined ; rectrices 

 (18) very broad, with rounded tips. General color dusky but glossed 

 with brilliant metallic coppery, golden, and greenish hues, the feathers of 

 back, rump, breast, sides, and flanks, as well as the scapulars and smaller 

 wing coverts, margined terminally with velvety black; primaries grayish 

 dusky, more or less broadly barred with white; rectrices brown, barred 

 with dusky, broadly tipped with white, bufly, light rusty brown, or chest- 

 nut and with a broad subterminal band of black. (Females with color- 

 ation duller, the metallic hues much less brilliant.) 



Range. — Eastern and south-central United States (west to Colorado 

 and Arizona) and mountains of Mexico. (Monotypic, but with six more 

 or less distinct subspecific forms.) 



KEY TO THE FORMS OF MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO (LINNAEUS) 



a. Tail tipped with deep rusty, its coverts and feathers of lower rump tipped with 

 rich dark chestnut. 

 b. Prima,ries broadly barred with white, white bars nearly or quite as broad as 

 dusky interspaces and extending to shafts of quills (northern Florida north- 

 ward in eastern United States) Meleagris gallopavo silvestris (p. 440) 



bh. Primaries narrowly barred with white, white bars very much narrower than 

 dusky interspaces and not extending to shafts of quills (Florida). 



Meleagris gallopavo osceola (p. 447) 

 aa. Tail and tail coverts and feathers of lower rump tipped with light cinnamon- 

 brown, buffy, or white. 

 b. Tail, upper tail coverts, etc., tipped with light cinnamon-brown, cinnamon, or 

 cinnamon-buff ; rump almost wholly ''solid" glossy black ( feathers tipped 

 with gfay in female and young) (central Texas to northeastern Mexico). 



Meleagris gallopavo intemiedia (p. 449) 

 hb. Tail, upper tail coverts, etc., tipped with white or pale buffy. 



c. Lower hack and rump bluish black without reddish and greenish-golden 

 metallic reflections. 

 d. Upper body plumage purplish bronzy. 

 e. Narrow bars on basal three quarters of undersurface of rectrices more 

 grayish than rufescent (western slope of Sierra Madre, Chihuahua to 

 Durango and southern Sonora). 



Meleagris gallopavo onusta (p. 457) 



ee. Narrow bars on basal three-quarters of undersurface of rectrices more 



rufescent than grayish (Colorado to Arizona, New Mexico, and 



southwestern Texas) Meleagris gallopavo merriami (p. 4S1) 



