30 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



about fifteen years ago. 1 This will obviate the 

 necessity of saying anything further in regard to 

 M . superba. 



So far as my knowledge carries me, this 

 leaves but two other fossil wild turkeys of 

 this country, both of which have been de- 

 scribed by Professor Marsh and generally 

 recognized. These are Meleagris antiqua in 

 1871, and Meleagris celer in 1872. My com- 

 ments on both of these species will be found 

 in the American Naturalist for July, 1897, on 

 pages 648, 649. 2 



^hufeldt, R. W., "On Fossil Bird-Bones Obtained by Expeditions of 

 the University of Pennsylvania from the Bone Caves of Tennessee." 

 The Amer. Nat., July, 1897, pp. 645-650. Among those bones were 

 many belonging to M. g. silvestris. Professor Marsh declined to allow 

 me to even see the fossil bones upon which he based the several alleged 

 new species of extinct Meleagridae which he had described. 



2 Marsh, 0. C. [Title on page 120.] Meleagris antiqua. Amer. 

 Journ. Sci., ser. 3, II, 1871, 126. From this I extract the following 

 description, to wit: — 



Meleagris antiquus, sp. nov. 

 A large Gallinaceous Bird, approaching in size the wild Turkey, and 

 probably belonging to the same group, was a contemporary of the Oreo- 

 don and its associates during the formation of the Miocene lake deposits 

 east of the Rocky Mountains. The species is at present represented only 

 by a few fragments of the skeleton, but among these is a distal end of a 

 right humerus, with the characteristic portions all preserved. The speci- 

 men agrees in its main features with the humerus of Meleagris gallopavo 

 Linn., the most noticeable points of difference being the absence in the 

 fossil species of the broad longitudinal ridge on the inner surface of the 

 distal end, opposite the radial condyle, and the abrupt termination of the 

 ulnar condyle at its outer, superior border. 



