THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LV 



white-footed mice by Dr. F. B. Sumner of the Scripps Institu- 

 tion/ there seems to be little or no work under way which can 

 be correlated logically with the results of speciation and sub- 

 speciation as the field naturalist and taxonomist find them in 

 nature. Doubtless one of the principal reasons for this is the 

 difficulty of finding convenient subjects and suitable conditions 

 for such work. Perhaps another is the independence of workers 

 in the respective fields of taxonomy and experimental zoology. 



As promising subjects for experiment, it seems worth while 

 to call attention to the American wild and domestic turkeys. 

 The common turkey has an exceedingly desirable distinction 

 from other domestic animals in that there is no important ques- 

 tion as to its history and lineage. Moreover, the wild stock 

 from which it was derived represents one of several intergrading 

 subspecies the natural characters and relationships of which can 

 be determined with a great degree of accuracy. Hence our 

 Thanksgiving bird, as a subject for experimental breeding, 

 might furnish a coml)ination with which naturally and arti- 

 ficially induced characters could be studied comparatively. As 

 at present recognized and understood, the native American 

 turkey is divisible into six races or subspecies, as follows: One 

 from the southeastern United States (Meleagris gallopavo syl- 

 vestris) ; one from southern Florida (M. g. osceola) ; one from 

 central Texas and northeastern Mexico {M. g. intermedia) ; one 

 from Arizona, New Mexico and Chihuahua (3/. g. merriami) ; 

 one troiii the Siei-i-;i ^ladre of Jalisco and west central Mexico 

 (.1/. <i. i,H rianxi and one from the eastern cordillera of Vera 

 Cniz, Atrxifo ( .1/. iidUopavo). The range of the turkey group 

 is thus from the southeastern Atlantic seaboard westward to 

 the Rocky ^Mountains and thence south to Vera Cruz. Complete 

 intergradation between the various subspecies may not be dem-* 

 onstrable with absolute nicety in all cases because the birds w^ere 

 exterminated in certain parts of the range before any specimens 

 were preserved. That intergradation between all the races was 

 as uninterrupted as it can be sho\^Ti to be between some of them, 

 however, is beyond reasonable doubt. The extremes of differ- 

 entiation, as usual in such cases, are represented approximately 

 \yy the geographical extremes. The cliaraeters distinguishing 

 the wild turkey of the eastern United States from that of south- 



iSee especially Am. Naturalist, XLIX, j.p. 688-701; ihid., LIT, pp. 

 177-454, 1918. 



