WILD TURKEY. 



Meleageis gallopavo. 



Char. General plumage coppery bronze, with metallic reflections of 

 copper color, green, and purple, the feathers edged with rich black ; head 

 and neck naked, and of blue color studded with excrescences of purplish 

 red ; tail dark chestnut, with bars and a broad subterminal band of black; 

 upper tail-coverts and tips of tail-feathers chestnut ; wings dusky, banded 

 by dull white. Male with a conspicuous tuft of bristles depending from 

 the breast. Female similar, but paler and duller Length about 48 

 inches. 



Nest. Under a bush or amid thick undergrowth or tall weeds, or 

 beneath brush heap ; a depression in the ground — natural or scratched 

 out — lined with leaves, grass, or feathers. 



Eggs. 10-15 (usually 12); rich cream color or pale buff, spotted with 

 bright brown ; size variable, averaging about 2.50 X 1.80. 



The Wild Turkey, once prevalent throughout the whole 

 continent of North America, from Mexico and the Antilles to 

 the forests of Lower Canada, is now, by the progress and den- 

 sity of population, chiefly confined to the thickly wooded and 

 uncultivated tracts of the Western States, being particularly 

 abundant in the unsettled parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, 

 Indiana, and throughout the vast forests of the great valleys of 

 the Mississippi and Missouri. On the banks of the latter 



