616 
U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS—ZOOLOGY—GENERAL REPORT. 
feathers are eighteen in number, nearly truncate at tip; or obtusely angular, the corners 
rounded. 
The naked skin of the head and neck is blue ; the excrescences purplish red. The legs are 
red. The feathers of the neck and body generally are very broad, abruptly truncate, and each 
one well defined and scale-like ; the exposed portion coppery bronze, with a bright coppery 
reflection in some lights, in the specimens before me chiefly on the under parts. Each feather 
is abruptly margined with velvet black, the bronze assuming a greenish or purplish shade near 
the line of junction, and the bronze itself sometimes with a greenish reflection in some lights. 
The black is opaque, except along the extreme tip, where there is a metallic gloss. The 
feathers of the lower back and rump are black, with little or no copper gloss. The feathers of 
the sides behind, and the coverts, upper and under, are of a very dark purplish chestnut, with 
purplish metallic reflections near the end, and a subterminal bar of black ; the tips are of the 
opaque purplish chestnut referred to. The concealed portion of the coverts is dark chestnut 
barred rather finely with black ; the black wider than the interspaces. The tail feathers are 
dark brownish chestnut, with numerous transverse bars of black, which, when most distinct, 
are about a quarter of an inch wide and about double their interspaces ; the extreme tip for 
about half an inch is plain chestnut, lighter than the ground color ; and there is a broad 
subterminal bar of black about two inches wide on the outer feathers, and narrowing to about 
three-quarters of an inch to the central ones. The innermost pair scarcely shows this band, 
and the others are all much broken and confused. In addition to the black bars on each 
feather, the chestnut interspaces are sprinkled with black. The black bands are all most distinct 
on the inner webs ; the interspaces are considerably lighter below than above. 
There are no whitish tips whatever to the tail or its coverts. The feathers on the middle of 
the belly are downy, opaque, and tipped obscurely with rusty whitish. 
The wing coverts are like the back ; the quills, however, are blackish brown, with numerous 
transverse bars of white, half the width of the interspaces. The exposed surfaces of the wing, 
however, and most of the inner secondaries, are tinged with brownish rusty, the uppermost 
ones with a dull copper or greenish gloss. 
The female differs in smaller size, less brilliant colors, absence generally of bristles on the 
breast and of spur, and a much smaller fleshy process above the base of the bill. 
The position of the spur in the male varies somewhat in different specimens, and even at 
times in the two legs of the same bird. 
The wild turkey of eastern North America differs in several points, both of structure and 
manners, from the domesticated bird, as recently insisted on by Major Leconte. I have not at 
hand a skin of the barn yard turkey for comparison, and owing to the season they are not to be 
found in our markets ; but according to Major Leconte, there is a great difference, in the 
possession by the latter of an enormous dewlap, extending from the base of the lower mandible 
to the large caruncles on the lower part of the neck, not found in the other. The color of the 
skin of the head and neck is not livid blue, but more of a fleshy tint, which in the breeding 
season of the male becomes fiery red, owing to the turgidity of the caruncles. This skin, too, 
appears to be more destitute of hairs. According to Bonaparte, the domestic turkey, even in 
those which have the closest resemblance to the wild bird, may always be distinguished by a 
whitish tip to the tail, and the tail coverts edged with whitish, never seen in the other. 
