40 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



disentangled for some time, as we shall see 

 further on in this chapter. In modern orni- 

 thology, however, the generic name of Meleagris 

 has been transferred from the guinea-fowls to 

 the turkeys. These last, as they are classified 

 in "The A. O. U. Check-List of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union," which is the latest 

 authoritative word upon the subject, stand as 



follows : 



Family Meleagrid^e. Turkeys. 

 Genus Meleagris Linnaeus. 

 Meleagris Linnseus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, 156. 

 Type, by subs, desig., Meleagris gallopavo Linnseus 

 (Gray, 1840). 



Meleagris gallopavo (Linnaeus) . 



Range. — Eastern and south central United States, 

 west to Arizona and south to the mountains of Oaxaca. 



a. [Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo. Extralimital.] 



b. Meleagris gallopavo silvestris Vieillot. Wild Tur- 

 key [310a]. 



Meleagris silvestris Vieillot Nouv., Diet. d'Hist. Nat., 

 IX, 1817, 447. 



Range. — Eastern United States from Nebraska, Kan- 

 sas, western Oklahoma, and eastern Texas east to central 

 Pennsylvania, and south to the Gulf coast; formerly 

 north to South Dakota, southern Ontario, and southern 

 Maine. 



c. Meleagris gallopavo merriami Nelson. Merriam's 

 Turkey [310]. 



