OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 



213 



traces of their crossed parentage. . . English turkeys are 

 smaller than either wild form. They have not varied in any great 

 degree ; but there are some breeds which can be distinguished, as 

 Norfolks, Suffolks, Whites, and Copper-colored (or Cambridge), 

 all of which, if precluded from crossing with other breeds, propa- 

 gate their kind only. 



Darwin then goes on in the same' place to point out some of the 

 marked characteristics of the other varieties, one or two of which 

 were conspicuously crested. He concludes by saying that " in India 

 the climate has apparently wrought a still greater change in the 

 turkey, for it is described by Mr Blyth as being much degenerated in 

 size, 1 utterly incapable of rising on the wing,' of a black color, and 

 with the long pendulous appendages over the beak enormously de- 

 veloped." 



With these facts before us, I conceived it would be of interest, if 

 not of actual importance, to compare a good series of selected skulls 

 of M . g . merria m i , with a series of skulls of that domes- 

 ticated form of the turkey which shows in its external characters 

 evidences of being still closely affined to the wild stock. Then 

 taking into consideration the number of years since this bird has 

 been domesticated, I thought it might be possible to discover those 

 definite characters in the skull that already showed a departure from 

 the corresponding features in the skull of the wild turkeys. The 

 latter were to be found in the forests within a mile of my residence. 

 Fort Wingate, Xew Mexico, and this gave me the opportunity, of 

 which I have availed myself, of securing a fine series of the skulls 

 of this form. Another series representing the variety of the tame 

 turkey alluded to in the last paragraph, was collected for me in 

 Chicago, by Mr H. K. Coale, the Secretary of the Ridgway Ornith- 

 ological Club of that city ; and I am under great obligations to him 

 for the evident care he took to select the proper kind of material. 

 I prepared the skulls of both of these series myself, as the heads 

 came to me in the flesh. Not being familiar with any name, as 

 having previously been bestowed upon it by former authors, for 

 this variety of the tame turkey, I have designated it for convenience 

 sake, the M . g . d o m e s t i c a . 



Y\ hen we come to compare simply superficially the skull of one of 

 these wild turkeys with the skull of one of the domesticated ones, 

 we appreciate that same difference which we find upon a similar 

 comparison to distinguish the skull of a cock G . bankiva and 

 any of the typically domesticated fowls. It seems to consist in a 

 lightness, a pneumaticity, accompanied by a certain sharpness of the 

 details of the skull, an angularity, if we may so express it, in the 



