BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 441 



dusky interspaces, and touching the shaft of the quills, the white bars, 

 especially on the inner web often more or less mottled with clove brown ; 

 secondaries similar but the dark areas paler and grayer — grayish olive- 

 brown terminally vermiculated, and on the inner webs strongly suffused 

 with cinnamomeous, the innermost ones with a purplish sheen and the 

 white bars averaging less pure white; pectoral tuft or "beard" blackish 

 with a greenish sheen basally and a slight vinaceous-brown gloss distally ; 

 middle of abdomen to vent chaetura drab to dull fuscous to fuscous-black, 

 each feather tipped with pale grayish buff to grayish tawny ; thighs similar 

 but the tips slightly more olivaceous (in some more cinnamomeous) and 

 the terminal portion of the feathers somewhat suffused with olive grayish 

 or with cinnamomeous; under wing coverts dark sepia to clove brown; 

 under tail coverts similar to the sides ; iris deep brown ; bill orange basally, 

 ■ yellowish at tip and along tomial edge; tarsi, tarsal spur, and toes purplish 

 red, the larger scutella with light brownish gray or greenish brown mar- 

 ' gins ; claws dark brown.^^ 



Adult female. — Similar to the adult male but smaller and duller in 

 color, more brownish, the metallic reflections much less brilliant; the 

 frontal appendage much smaller or rudimentary; "beard" smaller and 

 tarsal spurs absent or rudimentary ; the neck more extensively feathered, 

 the feathers extending to the nape; the head, especially above, more or 

 less sparsely covered with short dusky downy feathers and small bristles ; 

 the feathers of the neck, back, and underparts with more or less distinct 

 pale terminal edges ; the tips of the feathers of the breast, flanks, and sides 

 brown (blackish in males). 



Suhadult. — Similar to the adult of the corresponding sex but with 

 the beard shorter"^* and in the male the tarsal spurs and the frontal append- 

 age smaller. 



Immature male. — Similar to the adult male in size and to the adult 

 female in coloration but retains the two outer juvenal primaries. 



Immature female. — Similar to the adult female but lacks the beard and 

 retains the two outer juvenal primaries. 



Juvenal (sexes alike). — Forehead and anterior part of crown light 

 pinkish cinnamon darkening to pinkish cinnamon on the posterior part of 

 crown ; occiput and nape pinkish cinnamon splotched with Brussels brown 

 to clove brown, this darker color largely on the basal parts of the feathers, 

 which do not completely overlap ; hindneck and uppermost interscapulars 

 dusky hair brown to chaetura drab, the feathers with whitish shafts and 



"The elongated frontal appendage is largest (longest) during the breeding season 

 and may then attain a length of 3 inches or more ; in the winter it may shrink to less 

 than 1 inch. 



"According to some workers who deal with live wild turkeys, a male with a 

 beard less than 4 inches long is probably a first-year bird, while females seldom 

 develop beards until they are three years old. 



