100 
WILD TURKEY. 
birds the exterior web is much worn by friction amongst the bushes, 
in consequence of which those feathers exhibit a very singular 
unwebbed, curved appearance, faithfully represented in the plate. 
The spurious wing, the primary coverts, and the primaries, are 
plain blackish, banded with white, which is interrupted by the 
shaft, and sprinkled with blackish; the secondaries have the white 
portion so large, that they may as well be described as white, 
banded with blackish, and are moreover tinged with ferruginous- 
yellow; this colour gradually encroaches on the white, and then 
on the blackish, in proportion as the feathers approach the body, 
so that the tertials, are almost entirely of that colour, being only 
sprinkled with blackish, and having metallic reflections on the inner 
web; the anterior under wing coverts are brownish-black, the pos¬ 
terior ones being gray. The tail measures more than a foot and 
a quarter, is rounded, and composed of eighteen wide feathers; it 
is capable of being expanded and elevated, together with the 
superior tail coverts, so as to resemble a fan, when the bird parades, 
struts, or wheels. The tail is ferruginous, mottled with black, and 
crossed by numerous narrow, undulated lines, of the same colour, 
which become confused on the middle feathers; near the tip is a 
broad black band, then the feathers are again mottled for a short 
distance, and are widely tipped with ferruginous-yellow. 
The feet are robust and somewhat elongated; the tarsus mea¬ 
sures more than six inches in length, being covered before by large 
alternate pentagonal plates, and furnished, on the inner posterior 
side, with a rather obtuse, robust, compressed spur, nearly one inch 
long. The toes are three before, connected at base by a membrane, 
and one behind, touching the ground only at tip, being articulated 
higher on the tarsus than the others, and one half shorter than the 
lateral toes, which are equal; the middle toe is more than four 
inches long, and the posterior but little more than one inch; they 
are all covered by entire plates; the sole is granulated: the colour 
of the feet is red, the margins of the plates and scales, the mem- 
