222 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



ANALYTICAL SUMMARY 



1 As a rule, in adult specimens of M . g . m e r r i a m i , 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 craniofrontal 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 . 

 m erriami 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 varie- 

 ties 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 the occipital area, 

 is, as a rule, roughly semicircular in a domesticated turkey, whereas 

 in M. g. merriami it is nearly always of a cordate outline, 

 with the apex upward. In the case of the tame turkeys I have found 

 it to average one exception to this in every twelve birds ; in the 

 exception, the bounding line of the area made a cordate figure as in 

 wild turkeys. 



5 Among the domesticated turkeys, the interorbital septum al- 

 most invariably is pierced by a large irregular vacuity; as a rule, 

 this osseOus plate is entire in wild ones. 



6 The descending process of a lacrymal bone is more apt to be 

 longer in a wild turkey than in a tame one ; and for the average 

 the greater length is always in favor of the former species. 



7 In M . g . m e r r i a m i the arch of the superior margin 

 of the orbit is more decided than it is in the tame turkey, where 

 the arc formed by this line is shallowed, and not so elevated. 



8 We find, as a rule, that the pterygoid bones are rather longer 

 and more slender in wild turkeys than they are among the tame 

 ones. 



9 At the occipital region of the skull, the osseous structures are 

 denser and thicker in the tame varieties of turkeys ; and, as a 

 whole, the skull is smoother, with its salient apophysis less pro- 

 nounced in them than it is in the wild types. There is a certain 

 delicacy and lightness, very difficult to describe, that stamps the 

 skull of a wild turkey, and at once distinguishes it from any typical 

 skull of a tame one. 



10 I have predicted that the average size of the brain cavity will 

 be found to be smaller and of a less capacity in a tame turkey 



