THE WILD TURKEY IN THE MOUNTAINS OF WEST 



VIRGINIA 



THE Wild Turkey, in spite of its name, is distinctly an American 

 bird, which formerly ranged throughout the wooded portion of 

 the eastern United States, from southern Maine and south- 

 western Ontario, south to Florida and southwest to New Mexico and 

 Arizona, whence it extends southward onto the Mexican tableland. 



It has now become rare or extirpated in the more settled portions of 

 its range and is rarely found as far north as Pennsylvania and Ohio. 



Throughout its wide range, the Wild Turkey presents some varia- 

 tions in color, the extremes of which are shown by the Eastern Wild 

 Turkey and the Mexican Wild Turkey. These birds differ chiefly in the 

 color of the tips of the tail-feathers and upper tail-coverts, which in the 

 eastern bird are chestnut, and in the Mexican bird, whitish. 



Singularly enough, our barnyard Turkey is descended from the 

 Mexican bird, which the Spaniards found among the Aztecs in a state of 

 domestication. It was introduced from Mexico into Europe, where it 

 had become well established in 1530. and from Europe was brought by 

 the colonists to eastern North America. 



Although the domesticated bird will readily cross with the wild one. 

 no extensive effort has been made to domesticate the latter, and the in- 

 habitants of our barnyard still show the whitish-tipped tail and tail- 

 coverts of their Mexican ancestors. 



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