CHAPTER II 



RANGE, VARIATION, AND NAME 



WHEN America was discovered the wild 

 turkey inhabited the wooded portion of 

 the entire country, from the southern 

 provinces of Canada and southern Maine, south 

 to southern Mexico, and from Arizona, Kansas, 

 and Nebraska, east to the Atlantic Ocean and 

 the Gulf of Mexico. As the turkey is not a 

 migratory bird in the sense that migration is 

 usually interpreted, and while the range of the 

 species is one of great extent, as might be expected, 

 owing to the operation of the usual causes, a 

 number of subspecies have resulted. At the 

 present time, ornithologists recognize four of 

 these as occurring within the limits of the United 

 States, as set forth in Chapter IV beyond. 



In countries thickly settled, as in the one 

 where I now write, there is a great variety of wild 

 turkeys scattered about in the woods of the 



12 



