WILD TURKEY. 
MeLEACIJ^IS GALLOrAVO. 
Char. General plumage coppery bronze, with metallic reflections of 
copper color, green, and purple, the feathers edged with rich black ; head 
and neck naked, and of blue color studded with e.xcrescences of purplish 
■'cd ; tail dark chestnut, with bars and a broad subterminal band of black; 
ttpper tail^:overts and tips of tail-feathers chestnut ; wings dusky, banded 
y dull white. Male with a conspicuous tuft of bristles depending from 
inch'^'^^^**^ Female similar, but paler and duller Length about 48 
l^est. Under a bush or amid thick undergrowth or tall weeds, or 
neath brush heap ; a depression in the ground — natural or scratched 
^ 'wed with leaves, grass, or feathers. 
L . 10-15 (usually 12) ; rich cream color or pale buff, spotted with 
'gat brown ; size variable, averaging about 2.50 X 1.80. 
The Wild Turkey, once prevalent throughout the whole 
continent of North America, from Mexico and the Antilles to 
c forests of Lower Canada, is now, by the progress and den- 
sity of population, chiefly confined to the thickly wooded and 
^ncultivated tracts of the Western States, being particularly 
j l^^da-nt in the unsettled parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, 
th throughout the vast forests of the great valleys of 
® ississippi and Missouri. On the banks of the latter 
