BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 443 



Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas and 

 Georgia to northwestern Florida, and through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 

 eastern Kentucky, and Missouri to Arkansas, Oklahoma, eastern Texas, 

 northeastern New Mexico, and the Gulf Coast ; now extirpated in Canada, 

 New England, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa, South Dakota, 

 Kansas, and Minnesota; mixed with domestic blood and with western 

 stock in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and in the eastern part of the range. ^'' 

 Birds from coastal Georgia and southeastern South Carolina are some- 

 what intermediate between this form and the Florida subspecies, M. g. 

 Osceola. 



Type locality. — Pennsylvania. 



[Meledgris] gatlopavo Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, i, 1758, 1S6, part" (based 

 essentially on Meleagris sylvestris Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina, i, p. xliv; 

 Brisson, Orn., i, 162, and New England Wild Turkey Ray, av. 51 ; Alb. av. 3, 

 p. 33, t. 35) ; ed. 12, i, 1766, 268.— Gmelin, Syst. Nat., i, pt. 2, 1788, 732.— 

 Latham, Index Orn., ii, 1790, 618. 



Meleagris gallopavo Temminck, Cat. Syst., 1807, 149.— Bonaparte, Amer. Orn., i, 

 1825, 79, pi. 9; Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, ii, pt. 1, 1826, 123; Contr. Mac- 

 lurian Lye., i, 1827, 22; Geogr. and Corap. List, 1838, 42.— Audubon, Orn. 

 Biogr., i, 1831, 1, 33, pis. 1, 6; v, 1839, 559; Synopsis, 1839, 194; Birds Amer., 

 Bvo ed., V, 1842, 42, pis. 287, 288.— Nuttall, Man. Orn. United States and 

 Canada, Land Birds, 1832, 630 ; ed. 2, 1840, 773. — Hitchcock, Rep. Geol. Massa- 

 chusetts, 1833, 549 (Massachusetts) .—J ARDINE, Nat. Libr., Orn., iii, 1836, 117, 

 pis. 1, 2.— Thompson, Hist. Vermont, 1842, 101 (s. Vermont).— DeKay, Zool. 

 New York, 1844, 199, pi. 76, fig. 172. — Woodhouse, Rep. Sitgreaves' Expl. Zuiii 

 and Colorado Rivers, 1853, 93 (Indian Territory; Texas). — Baird, Rep. Pacific 

 R.R. Surv., ix, 1858, 615; Cat. North Amer. Birds, 1859, No. 457.— Mc- 

 iLWltAiTH, Proc. Essex Inst, v, 1866, 91 (Ontario, formerly). — Allen, Mem. 

 ■Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1868, 500 (w. Iowa; formerly numerous) ; Bull. Mus. 

 Comp. Zool., iii, 1872, 141 (Fort Hays, Kans.), 144 (nw. Kansas), 181 (e. and 

 middle Kansas). — Sisrow, Cat. Birds Kansas, ed. 2, 1872, 12 (Kansas; becoming 

 rarer) ; 1879, 9; ed. 5, 1903, 15 (southwestern Kansas; rare, if not extinct). — 



"Birds from the Wichita National Forest are only doubtfully identifiable as 

 silvestris, but this seems to be due to mixing of strains there by local introduction. 



"It may fairly be questioned whether Linnaeus based his Meleagris gallopavo 

 more on the wild turkey of the Eastern United States or the domesticated bird, and 

 possibly those who insist upon the latter are right ; but this does not affect the right 

 of a subsequent author when dealing with a composite species to restrict the original 

 name according to his best judgment. In 1856, John Gould thus restricted the 

 specific name gallopavo to the wild bird of the Eastern United States and named 

 the wild turkey of eastern Mexico (which is unquestionably the parent stock of the 

 domesticated turkey) M. mexicana. The principle involved is a very simple and 

 just one, and there are few of those already incorporated with the rules of zoological 

 nomenclature which are more potent to prevent the unnecessary shifting of names 

 than this. It is true that the wild turkey of the Eastern United States had received 

 several different specific names prior to Gould's discrimination of two species, in 

 1856 ; but the authors of these several names did not recognize two species and there- 

 fore merely renamed the composite one, thus merely adding synonyms to the eastern 

 form as clearly separated by Gould. (R.R.) 



