BIRDS PHASIANIDAE — MELEAGBIS GALLOPAVO. 617 



Major Leconte states furthermore, that the wild turkey has never heen so domesticated as to 

 propagate its race in confinement, notwithstanding the many efforts made to accomplish this 

 result. 



The difference in the color of the flesh of the two birds when cooked is quite appreciable, that 

 of the wild bird being much darker. 



It is upon the whole exceedingly probable that the two birds are specifically distinct. 

 Whether the domestic species be descended from the one recently described by Mr. Gould, or 

 not, remains to be ascertained. In the next article I describe skins which appear to be referable 

 to Grould's M. mexicana, and this certainly indicates a near approach to the tamed turkey in 

 the whitish bars of the tail coverts and the tail. The skin of the head, however, appears to be 

 of the same color, and no difference in the carunculation of the throat was noticed, although 

 this may have been obscured by drying. The skin of the head appeared more pilose, but there 

 was the same caruncle at the base of the bill. 



If the dewlap be characteristic of a species at present only known in captivity, then, as 

 Major Leconte remarks, it should bear the name of M. gallopavo, as based by Linnaeus 

 essentially upon the description by Brisson of Gallopavo sylveslris, in which this dewlap is 

 particularly mentioned. In this event our wild bird will be entitled to a new name, which 

 might be that of Bartram, in 1Y91, Meleagris americana. Should the M. mexicana be the 

 original of the domestic species, Gould's name will become a synonym, if it be proved that 

 gallopavo refers to the same bird. 



In conclusion I venture to suggest the following hypothesis, which, however, is not original 

 with myself: That there are really three species of turkey, besides the M. ocellata, a 

 fourth species from Central America, entirely different from the rest. That one of these, M. 

 americana) is, probably, peculiar to the eastern half of North America ; another, M. mexicana, 

 belongs to Mexico, and extends along the table lands to the Rocky mountains, the Gila, and 

 the Llano Estacado, and a third is the M. gallopavo, or domesticated bird. That it is not at all 

 improbable that the last was originally indigenous to some one or more of the West India islands, 

 whence it was transplanted as tamed to Mexico and other parts of America, and from Mexico 

 taken to Europe about A. D. 1520. Finally, that the wild turkeys were probably completely 

 exterminated by the natives, as has been the case with equally large birds in other islands, as 

 the dodo and solitaire. 



This hypothesis will explain the fact of our meeting nowhere at the present day any wild 

 turkeys resembling the domestic one. I have an indistinct recollection of a statement that our 

 barn yard turkey came originally from Bermuda or Jamaica, but I cannot speak positively 

 in regard to it. 



The entire subject is one of much interest, and de-^' vves to be investigated thoroughly. It is 

 quite possible that a careful examination of the exVjrnal form and habits of the New Mexican 

 bird may do much to throw full light on the whole question. 



July 3, 1858. 



78 b 



