220 



KEY AND DMSCRIPTION 



upper neck bare of feathers, and with, more or less of erectile 

 processes on the bare portions. The breast is furnished with 

 a tuft of hair-like feathers, and the tail feathers and upper tail 



coverts are tipped 

 with chestnut. The 

 common domestic 

 turkey has white 

 tips to the tail feath- 

 ers and tail coverts. 

 This noble game bird 

 of wooded regions is 

 the original of the 

 domestic race, and is 

 becoming each year 

 more rare. This wild 

 species is divided 

 into four varieties, 

 the form given and 

 the three following. 



Length, 40-50 ; wing, 

 18-22; tail, 16-19. 

 United States from 

 Chesapeake Bay south- 

 ward to the Gulf of 

 Mexico and westward 

 to the Plains. The Mex- 

 ican Turkey (.310". lif. g. mexicana) of the southwest, from Texas to 

 Arizona, and southward into Mexico, has the upper tail coverts tipped 

 with buffy white. The Florida Wild Turkey (310i>. M. g. oscebla) of 

 southern Florida is a smaller, and darker bird. The primaries are much 

 less regularly barred with white. The Rio Grande Turkey (310=. M. g. 

 ellioti) of the lowlands of Texas and northeastern Mexico can be dis- 

 tinguished from all the others by the dark buff edgings on the tail, and 

 upper and lower tail coverts, in contrast with the white on the same paiis 

 of the Mexican turkey, and the deep, dark, reddish-chestnut of the com- 

 mon wild turkey. The brilliantly colored European and Ring-necked 

 Pheasants have been introduced and more or less acclimated in several of 

 the states. The males are 36 long and the females 25 long. The females 

 are plainly colored. As most of the specimens are hybrid forms descrip- 

 tions would be of little value. 



Wild Turkey 



