WILD TURKEY. 
163 
vinaceous, but graduated as in the male. The lateral 
tail-feathers are also much more uniform with the 
middle one, and of course with the back, the three outer 
only on each side being pearl gray at tip. This latter 
character, however, we should rather attribute to age 
than sex, if we had not good reason to believe that our 
female is a perfectly adult bird. 
At first sight, the Zenaida dove might perhaps be 
mistaken for the common turtle dove, Columba caro- 
linensis, and marginata of authors,) having the same 
general colour and several common markings ; but, to 
mention no other differential character, the short even 
tail, composed of but twelve feathers, all rounded, the 
outer bluish gray at tip, will at once distinguish it from 
the latter, which belongs to a different group, having 
the tail long cuneiform, and (what is found in no other 
American species, not even its close relation, the 
passenger pigeon) composed of fourteen tapering and 
acute feathers, the two middle remarkably so, and the 
lateral pure white at tip. If any other distinction should 
be required, the white tips of the secondaries of our 
new species will afford a good one, as well as the outer 
tail-feather, the exterior web of which is blue gray, 
crossed, as well as the others, by the black band ; 
whilst in the C. carolinensis it is entirely pure white, 
the black band being confined to the inner web. 
GENUS XVIII. — MELEAGRIS, Linn^us. 
41. MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO, LINNAEUS. WILD TURKEY. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE IX. MALE AND FEMALE. 
The native country of the wild turkey extends from 
the north-western territory of the United States to the 
Isthmus of Panama, south of which it is not to be found, 
notwithstanding the statements of authors, who have 
mistaken the curassow for it. In Canada, and the now 
densely peopled parts of the United States, wild turkeys 
were formerly very abundant ; but, like the Indian 
