38 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



The sternum of the turkey, if we have it 

 practically complete, is one of the most char- 

 acteristic bones of the skeleton; but Professor 

 Marsh had no such material to guide him when 

 he pronounced upon his fossil turkeys. Had I 

 made new species, based on the fragments of 

 fossil long bones of all that I have had for exami- 

 nation, quite a numerous little extinct avifauna 

 would have been created. 



" It is often a positive detriment to science, in my 

 opinion, to create new species of fossil birds upon 

 the distal ends of long bones, and surely no assist- 

 ance whatever to those who honestly endeavor to 

 gain some idea of the avian species that really 

 existed during prehistoric times." 1 



iShufeldt, R. W. Amer. Nat., July, 1897, p. 648. I have had no 

 occasion to change my opinion since. 



