216 WILD TURKEY. 



shortest, and the fourth and fifth longest, the second and ninth being 

 nearly equal ; the smaller and middling wing coverts are colored like 

 the feathers of the body; the greater coverts are copper-violaceous, 

 having a black band near the whitish tip ; their concealed web is blackish, 

 sprinkled with dull ferruginous : in old birds the exterior web is much 

 worn by friction amongst the bushes, in consequence of which those 

 feathers exhibit a very singular unwebbed, curved appearance, faithfully 

 represented in the plate. The spurious wing, the primary coverts, and 

 the primaries, are plain blackish, banded with white, which is interrupted 

 by the shaft, and sprinkled with blackish ; the secondaries have the 

 white portion so large, that they may as well be described as white, 

 banded with blackish, and are moreover tinged with ferruginous-yellow ; 

 this color gradually encroaches on the white, and then on the blackish, 

 in proportion as the feathers approach the body, so that the tertials are 

 almost entirely of that color, being only sprinkled with blackish, and 

 having metallic reflections on the inner web ; the anterior under wing 

 coverts are brownish-black, the posterior ones being gray. The tail 

 measures more than a foot and a quarter, is rounded, and composed of 

 eighteen wide feathers ; it is capable of being expanded and elevated, 

 together with the superior tail coverts, so as to resemble a fan, when the 

 bird parades, struts, or wheels. The tail is ferruginous, mottled with 

 black, and crossed by numerous narrow, undulated lines, of the same 

 color, which become confused on the middle feathers ; near the tip is a 

 broad black band, then the feathers are again mottled for a short dis- 

 tance, and are widely tipped with ferruginous-yellow. 



The feet are robust and somewhat elongated ; the tarsus measures 

 more than six inches in length, being covered before by large alternate 

 pentagonal plates, and furnished, on the inner posterior side, with a 

 rather obtuse, robust, compressed spur, nearly one inch long. The toes 

 are three before, connected at base by a membrane, and one behind, 

 touching the ground only at tip, being articulated higher on the tarsus 

 than the others, and one-half shorter than the lateral toes, which are 

 equal ; the middle toe is more than four inches long, and the posterior 

 but little more than one inch ; they are all covered by entire plates ; 

 the sole is granulated : the color of the feet is red, the margins of the 

 plates and scales, the membrane and nails being blackish; the nails 

 are oblong, wide, obtuse at tip, rounded above, and perfectly plain 

 beneath. 



The female, or hen Turkey, is considerably smaller in size, being 

 three feet and a quarter long. The bill and feet resemble those of the 

 male, but are proportionally smaller, the latter being destitute of even 

 a rudiment of spur : the irides are like those of the male. The head 

 and neck are not so naked as in that sex, but are covered by small de- 

 composed feathers, of a dirty grayish color ; those of the back of the 



