WILD TURKEY. 
355 
top of some tree, or of the house. They were also more rea- 
dily alarmed ; on the approach of a dog, they would fly off, and 
seek safety in the nearest woods. On an occasion of this kind, 
one of them flew across the Susquehanna, and the owner was 
apprehensive of losing it ; in order to recover it, he sent a boy 
with a tame turkey, which was released at the place where the 
fugitive had alighted. This plan was successful ; they soon 
joined company, and the tame bird induced his companion to 
return home. Mr Bloom remarked, that the wild turkey will 
thrive more, and keep in better condition, than the tame, on 
the same quantity of food. 
Besides the above mentioned half breed, some domesticated 
turkeys, of a very superior metallic tint, are sold in the Phila- 
delphia and New York markets as wild ones. Many of these 
require a practised eye to distinguish their true character, but 
they are always rather less brilliant, and those I examined had 
a broad whitish band at the tip of the tail-coverts, and another 
at the tip of the tail itself, which instantly betrayed their ori- 
gin, the wild ones being entirely destitute of the former, and 
the band on the tip of the tail being neither so wide nor so 
pure. 
In the following description, we give the generic, as well as 
the specific characters of the wild turkey, in order to make it 
complete. 
The male wild turkey, when full grown, is nearly four feet 
in length, and more than five in extent. The bill is short and 
robust, measuring two inches and a half to the corner of the 
mouth ; it is reddish, and horn colour at tip ; the superior man- 
dible is vaulted, declining at tip, and overhangs the inferior, 
being longer and wider ; it is covered at base by a naked cere- 
like membrane, in which the nostrils are situated, they being 
half closed by a turgid membrane, and opening downwards ; 
the inferior mandible slightly ascends towards the tip ; the 
aperture of the ear is defended by a fascicle of small decom- 
posed feathers ; the tongue is fleshy and entire ; the irides are 
dark brown ; the head, which is very small in proportion to 
