BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 51 



FAMILY PHASIANIDJE. TURKEYS, ETC. 

 SUBFAMILY MELEAGRIN^l. TURKEYS. 

 GENUS MELEAGRIS. 



310. Meleagris gallopavo. LINN. 







Wild Turkey. 



Hnb. United States, from southern Canada to the Gulf coast, and west to the 

 plains, along the timbered river valleys; formerly along the Atlantic coast to southern 

 Maine. 



This noble game bird, although rapidly becoming extirpated, is still 

 found in small numbers in the wooded, thinly-populated and uncul- 

 tivated districts of this Commonwealth. Nests on the ground; eggs 

 very similar to those of our domestic turkeys. The food consists 

 chiefly of cereals, berries, acorns, chestnuts and other vegetal ma- 

 terials. 



ORDER COLUMBAE. PIGEONS. 



FAMILY COLUMBID-flS. PIGEONS. 

 GENUS ECTOPISTES. SWAINSON. 

 315. Ectopistes migratorius (LiNN.). 



Passenger Pigeon; Wild Pigeon. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Tail with twelve feathers ; upper parts generally, including sides of body, head 

 and neck, and the chin, blue, beneath, purple brownish-red, fading behind with a 

 violet tint; anal region and under tail coverts, white ; scapulars, inner tertials and 

 middle" of back, with an olive-brown tinge ; the wing coverts, scapulars and inner 

 tertials, with large oval spots of blue-black on the outer webs, mostly concealed, ex- 

 cept on the latter ; primaries blackish, with a border of pale-bluish tinged internally 

 with red ; middle tail feathers brown ; the rest pale-blue on the outer web, white 

 internally ; each with a patch of reddish-brown at the base of the inner web, fol- 

 lowed by another of black ; sides and back of neck richly glossed with metallic 

 golden-violet ; tibia, bluish-violet ; bill, black ; feet, purplish-red ; iris, red. 



The female is smaller ; much duller in color ; more olivaceous above ; beneath, 

 pale-blue instead of red, except a tingeon the neck ; the juguluni tinged with olive ; 

 the throat whitish. 



The blue of the side of the head extends to the throat and chin ; the upper part 

 of the back and lesser coverts are of a darker blue than the head and rump ; the 

 inner primaries are more broadly margined with light-blue, which tapers oft" to the 

 end ; the axillars and under surfice of the wing are light-blue; the longest scapulars 

 have the black on both webs; there is no blue on the outer web of the first tail 

 feather, which is white, and the inferior surface of the tail generally is white. 



In some specimens the entire head all round is blue. 



