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The Wild Turkey. 
America's Greatest Game Bird. 
America has given to the world its largest 
game bird and perhaps most important domestic 
fowl—the turkey. It is purely American, and its 
ancestry goes back a long way, for it existed 
here in far-off Tertiary times, portions of the 
skeletons of a turkey having been found in the 
Miocene deposits of Colorado, and the bones of 
other species in the post Pliocene of New 
Jersey. Of these last, one was about the size 
of the existing turkey, but taller, while another 
was much smaller. At this time, the mastodon 
lived along the Atlantic coast, while the far 
older turkeys of Colorado had as associates the 
huge Brontotherium and many other creatures 
long extinct. 
NAME. 
When the white men came to these shores 
they found turkeys in plenty. The flesh con¬ 
stituted a good share of the food of the natives, 
who wore cloaks or robes made of turkey 
feathers. Not very long after the discovery of 
the New World the bird was taken to Europe, 
and there received a variety of names in dif¬ 
ferent countries, most of which refered to India, 
carrying out the early idea that America was 
a part of the Indies. Thus the bird was called 
by the English “cock of India”; in French, 
poule d’Inde, contracted to dinde, hen of India; 
in Spanish, gallo or gallina de India, cock or 
hen of India; in German, Indianische Henne 
or Huhn, Indian hen, and also Calecutischer 
Hahn, or Henne, cock or hen of Calcutta. It was 
also called by the Spaniards the Moorish hen, 
referring to a supposed African origin, while in 
Egypt the Arabic name is Dik rumi, fowl of 
Turkey. 
Precisely why it should have been called tur¬ 
key by the English it is hard to say, except that 
as Turkey was a part of the far east, it may 
have been supposed to have some relation to 
India. It has been suggested that the name 
by which we know the bird is a corruption of a 
Hebrew word tukki, said to mean peacock, that 
this term was applied to the turkey when it was 
received in Spain by the Jews, who then monopo¬ 
lized the business of selling poultry, and that 
from this point of first introduction the name 
spread with the bird over a part of Europe. 
This bird, taken to Europe by the Spaniards 
soon after the conquest, was the Mexican turkey. 
GEOGRAPHICAL RACES. 
The common wild turkey once found over 
most of eastern North America was for a long 
time the only form known in the United States, 
and this was thought to be the progenitor of all 
the domesticated races of turkeys. In 1856, how¬ 
ever, the English naturalist Gould described the 
Mexican turkey as a distinct species, and much 
later other observers called attention to a tur¬ 
key from Florida differing slightly from the 
ordinary wild turkey and to yet another different 
one from the Rio Grande. Later still. E. W. 
Nelson found that the turkey of Arizona pre¬ 
sented constant, if slight, differences from the 
wild turkey of the plains and that of Mexico, 
and described it as Merriam’s turkey. 
To the untrained eye the differences between 
certain of these subspecies are slight, and the 
sportsman will do well to try to learn the geo¬ 
graphical ranges of the different forms, for in 
most cases the locality will be to him a better 
guide in identifying the bird he kills than will 
any color description. The Mexican turkey is 
markedly different from the bird of the east, 
and the two will readily be recognized. The 
differences between the various turkeys are 
found chiefly in the coloring of the rectrices 
or tail feathers and of the tail coverts and the 
primaries. 
The original wild turkey—to which the name 
Meleagvis gallopavo was given—has been shown 
to be the bird later described by Gould as the 
Mexican wild turkey. It is notably different 
from the eastern form, for its tail, tail coverts 
and the feathers of the lower rump are tipped 
with white or whitish, while the eastern and 
northern turkey has those feathers tipped with 
deep rusty or even with rich dark chestnut. 
The ordinary domestic turkey shows the whitish 
tippings of the feathers of tail, tail coverts and 
lower rump; characters' derived from its ances¬ 
tor, the turkey of Mexico. The Mexican turkey 
occupies the wooded mountain slopes border¬ 
ing the Mexican tablelands on the south and 
west, ranging north to Chihuahua, but it does 
not reach the United States. Mr. Nelson has 
shown where it grades into the Merriam’s • tur¬ 
key on the north, while to the south in South¬ 
eastern Mexico and Central America, it is re¬ 
placed by a strikingly distinct species, the bril¬ 
liantly hued ocellated turkey. 
The eastern wild turkey, which was long con¬ 
sidered the true Meleagris gallopavo, thus be¬ 
comes a subspecies of the Mexican turkey and 
is now known as Meleagris gallopavo silvestris. 
It and the closely similar Florida race ( osceola) 
have the ends of the upper tail coverts and tail 
feathers dark chestnut. The common northern 
wild turkey has the primaries, or stiff quill 
feathers of the wing white, barred with black, 
while the Florida wild turkey has the primaries 
black, with small white bars, which are broken 
and usually do not reach the shaft of the 
feather. These differences are constant, other¬ 
wise they would not be regarded as subspecific 
characters. 
Down in parts of Southern Texas and North¬ 
eastern Mexico is found another subspecies 
(intermedia ) known as the Rio Grande turkey, 
or Elliott’s turkey. It looks much like the com¬ 
mon wild turkey, but the rump feathers have a 
coppery bronze bar across them close to the 
ends, and are tipped with dark yellowish. The 
tail coverts are chestnut with narrow black 
cross bars and are broadly tipped with buff. 
The tail is mottled pale chestnut and black, 
has a black bar across it close to the end, and 
is tipped with yellowish buff. The difference 
in appearance between Elliott’s turkey and the 
common turkey is not easily expressed 
words, but anyone who has an opportuni 
to compare two specimens of the same age ai 
sex will readily see that they are not exact 
alike. Moreover, the female of the Rio Gran 
turkey has grayish tips to the feathers on t 
upper part of the body and thus differs stri 
ingly from any other species of turkey. 
From the wild turkey of the east Merrian 
turkey may be distinguished by the whitish ti 
of the feathers of the lower rump, tail covei 
and tail. From the Mexican turkey it may 
known by its velvety black rump and t 
greater amount of rusty rufous, succeedi: 
white tips on the tail coverts and tail, and 
the distinct black and chestnut barring of t 
middle tail feathers. 
Merriam’s turkey thus appears to be abo 
midway between the eastern wild turkey ai 
the wild turkey of Mexico, and in fact the eai 
ern wild turkey grades into Merriam’s turk< 
as Merriam’s turkey grades into the Mexic; 
turkey whose white tipped tail coverts and wh: 
tipped tail, as seen in the domestic turkey, a 
so characteristic. 
RANGE. 
So in the United States we have five forr 
of turkey, the ranges of which are fairly w 
defined. 
The Florida wild turkey ( Meleagris gallopa 
osceola), described by Scott about twenty yea 
ago, is confined to Florida, but the precise limi, 
of its range are not yet known. The type spe< 
men came from Tarpon Springs, Fla. 
The Rio Grande turkey ( Meleagris gallopa', 
intermedia) was described by the late Geor; 
B. Sennett, in 1892. It is a striking bird foui 
in the lowlands of Southern Texas and also 
Northeastern Mexico, where it ranges from tl. 
coast lowlands up to over 3,000 feet in the a>j 
jacent mountains. 
Merriam’s turkey ( Meleagris gallopavo me. 
riami) was described by E. W. Nelson in 19c, 
It ranges from Southern Colorado south throuj 
Arizona and New Mexico and grades into tl 
Mexican turkey on the south and into the eas 
ern wild turkey on the east. On all strean 
flowing east from the Rocky Mountains ov 
the great plains, from the Niobrara, which 
near the northern boundary of Nebraska, sou 
nearly to the Rio Grande, turkeys were fo 
merly common, and these were the ordinal 
bird of the Mississippi Valley. They lived alor 
these various rivers, many of which have the 
heads in the mountains, and following up the: 
streams to the mountains, there intergrade wit, 
the mountain bird. E. W. Nelson has show 
where this takes place. 
In these days, when the common wild turkt 
is extinct over much of its former range, it 
very difficult to define with exactness the formn 
boundaries of that range. We know that it wi 
abundant in Southern New England and to tl 
south. Audubon speaks of it rather vaguely ; 
found in Southern Vermont, New Hampshi) 
and Maine, and it is certain that it was on< 
