Merriam’s Turkey 155 
sound. This courting act, according to Bond, is continued 
daily during the pairing and nesting season. 
The nest is a depression with a little grass lining or 
sometimes nearly bare, and is usually sheltered by a 
sage bush or clump of grass. The eggs, about eight 
in number, are olive-buff to greenish-brown, spotted 
with chocolate-brown; the colour is superficial and 
easily removed from a freshly laid egg. The size 
averages 2°20 x 1°50. 
They roost on the ground often in the same place, 
as can be told by their droppings, and in winter they 
pack into parties of fifty to one hundred birds. 
Family MELEAGRIDID. 
Characters of the single genus. 
Genus MELEAGRIS. 
Head and upper-neck naked and carunculate, with an erectile process 
on the crown; tarsi naked with scutes in front and behind, that of 
the male spurred ; tail broad and rounded of 14—18 feathers ; plumage 
lustrous and iridescent. 
This genus contains two species only, and is confined to North 
America. The domestic bird is without doubt derived from the 
Mexican race (M. gallapavo Linn.) and the Colorado bird is more 
closely allied to it than to the wild Turkey of eastern North America 
(M. g. silvestris). 
Merriam’s Turkey. Meleagris gallopavo merriami. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 310d—Colorado Records—Pike 10, Vol. ii., 
pp. 442, 462 (Coues’ ed.); Ridgway 73, pp. 186, 195; Morrison 88, 
p- 139; 89, p. 182; Cooke 97, pp. 71, 203; Gilman 07, p. 153; Warren 
09, p. 14 ; Felger 09, p. 191. 
Description.—Male—Head and neck bare, dull bluish, with an erectile 
process hanging from above the bill; chest with a bristly tuft ; feathers 
of the under-parts metallic bronzy-green and reddish, tipped with 
velvet-black ; feathers of the lower-back and rump metallic tipped 
with black ; tail, tail-coverts and feathers of the lower-rump tipped with 
buffy-whitish ; iris brown, bill dusky, legs dusky red. Length 48 to 
50; wing 20-5; tail 16-0; culmen 1-6; tarsus 5-26. The female 
is similar but duller and smaller. 
