I\Iay, 1913 
THE WILD TURKEYS OF COLORADO 
105 
abundance of turkeys in eastern Kansas, and mentions meeting them west to the 
Little Arkansas River near the present town of Wichita ; then he does not record 
them again until he reaches Bent’s Fort, Colorado, near the present town of Las 
Animas, though he notes from day to day the more interesting birds seen. The 
previous year, 1845, made an expedition into New Mexico, starting from this 
same Bent’s Fort, and records turkeys all the way from the Arkansas up the Las 
Animas to Raton Pass. Thence he passed to the headwaters of the Canadian 
River and down this stream to its mouth in Oklahoma. He does not mention 
seeing turkeys in all the country from the east side of Raton Pass for the next 
hundred miles until he is far out on the plains and almost to the New Mexico- 
Texas line. 
Fig. 32. A Part ok the Ranges of the AVied Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) 
AND THE Merriam Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo merriami) 
It thus seems that Long, Say, and Abert each found a wide space separat- 
ing the turkeys of Kansas and Texas from those of Colorado and New Mexico. 
Nor has anr^ subsequent traveler reported the presence of the birds in this inter- 
vening space. The turkeys of Kansas and of northwestern Texas are sil-z'cstris 
and those of the upper Arkansas in Colorado and of the region around Raton 
Pass are merriami. It seems then logical to suppose that merriami ranged down 
the Arkansas and Las Animas rivers to their junction and that the turkeys of 
Bent’s Fort and vicinity belonged to this form. If the above reasoning is cor- 
rect the eastern form of the wild turkey has never occurred in Colorado and must 
be omitted from the Colorado bird-list. 
