West Indies, and farther back to Mexico, where 

 the parent stock still survives. It is from this 

 Southwestern variety, Meleagris mexicana, and 

 not from the variety in the East and North, 

 that our domestic turkey has sprung. The only 

 marked difference in the two varieties is that 

 mexicana has creamy- white tips to his tail-feath- 

 ers and to those over-lapping the base of the 

 tail, while gallopavo^s tips are chestnut-brown. 

 The Southwestern bird, too, is somewhat greener 

 than the Northern. 



Both varieties are growing very rare, and be- 

 fore long will become extinct. Our ISTorthern 

 bird was abundant in some parts as late as 

 Audubon's day. He bought them for " three- 

 pence each." Yet he says, speaking of the 

 Alleghanies : "While in the Great Pine Forest 

 in 1829, I found a single feather that had been 

 dropped from the tail of a female, but saw no 

 bird of the kind." One can range half of the 

 country now and not find so much as a feather. 



If they ■were wholly gone, if they had never 

 been studied wild by the naturalists, we still 

 could almost write the life-history of the bird 

 from the habits of our tame turkeys. 

 [267] 



