98 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



brief, though it is none the less necessary to com- 

 plete the subject of the present treatise. 1 



1. As a rule, in adult specimens of M. g. mer- 

 riami, the posterior margins of the nasal bones 

 indistinguishably fuse with the frontals; whereas, 

 as a rule, in domesticated turkeys these sutural 

 traces persist with great distinctness throughout 

 life. 



2. As a rule, in wild turkeys we find the cran- 

 iofrontal region more concaved and wider across 

 than it is in the tame varieties. 



3. The parietal prominences are apt to be 

 more evident in M. g. merriami than they are in 

 the vast majority of domesticated turkeys; and 

 the median longitudinal line measured from these 

 to the nearest point of the occipital ridge is longer 

 in the tame varieties than it is in the wild birds. 

 Generally speaking, this latter character is very 

 striking and rarely departed from. 



4 . The figure formed by the line which bounds 



1 Stufeldt, R. W. "Osteology of Birds," Education Dept. Bull. 

 No. 447, Albany, N. Y., May 15, 1909. N. Y. State Mus. Bull. 130, 

 pp. 222-224; based upon a former contribution which appeared in The 

 Journal of Comparative Medicine and Surgery, July, 1887, entitled "A 

 Critical Comparison of a Series of Skulls of the Wild and Domesticated 

 Turkeys." (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris and M . domestical 



