Genus ORTALIDA, Merrem.
Ortalida, Merrem, Av. rar. Icones et Desc. II, 1786, 40 (Gray). (Type, Phasianus motmot, L.)
37977 ♂ ⅓ ⅓
Ortalida maccalli.
Of Ortalida, as characterized above, Messrs. Sclater and Salvin enumerate eighteen species; like the rest of the family, all American. Of these only one has so far been detected within our limits, although it is by no means improbable that the O. poliocephala, Wagler (Sclater and Salvin, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1870, 537), may yet be detected in New Mexico or Arizona.[112]
Ortalida vetula, var. maccalli, Baird.
THE TEXAS CHACALACCA.
Ortalida vetula, Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, 1851, 116. (Not Penelope vetula, Wagler, Isis, 1830, 1112, and 1831, 517.)—Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, 538. (Considers it the same as P. vetula, Wagler). Ortalida poliocephala, Cassin, Illust. I, IX, 1855, 267, pl. xliv. (Not Penelope poliocephala, Wagler, Isis, 1830, 1112.) Ortalida maccalli, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 611.—Ib. M. Bound. II, Birds, 22.—Dresser, Ibis, 1866, 24 (S. E. Texas, breeding).—Lawr. Ann. N. Y. IX, 209 (Yucatan).—Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, 538 (Honduras, Vera Cruz, Guatemala).—Reichenb. Handb. der sp. Orn. Lief, VIII, 145. (Describes more adult specimens.)
Sp. Char. Body above dark greenish-olive; beneath brownish-yellow, tinged with olive. Head and upper part of neck plumbeous. Tail-feathers lustrous green, all tipped with white, except the middle one. Feathers along the middle of the throat black; outer edge of primaries tinged with gray. Eyes brown. Bill and feet lead-colored. Length, 23.50; wing, 8.50; tail, 11.00.
Hab. Valley of the Rio Grande, and southward to Guatemala.
This form is distinguishable from O. vetula, as restricted, of which it is the northern representative, by the paler and less fulvous colors, and lighter—often nearly white—tips to the tail-feathers, besides other minor differences in coloration. The two cannot be separated specifically, however, since they undoubtedly grade into each other.
Habits. This very remarkable bird, belonging as it does to a form peculiar to this continent, is the only species found within the limits of the United States, and only within a quite restricted area in the valley of the Rio Grande. Numerous species of this family are found in the warmer countries of America, especially Mexico and Central America, all or nearly all of which appear to be capable of domestication, and some of which, including the present species, have, in repeated instances, been quite as completely domesticated as our common Turkey.
Ortalida maccalli.
Birds of the family to which the Texan species belongs differ in a very marked manner, in habits, from most Gallinaceæ, inasmuch as they not only live almost exclusively in deep forests, but are also remarkable for habitually frequenting trees, feeding upon their foliage, and building their nests within their branches, more in the manner of the smaller birds. They are all said to have loud and discordant voices, and are generally of a black or dark plumage.
Specimens of this bird were taken at Boquillo, in New Leon, in the spring of 1853, by Lieutenant Couch, who speaks of them as gregarious and as seeking their food wholly or in part on trees. According to Mr. Clark, they do not occur higher up the Rio Grande than the vicinity of Ringgold Barracks, inhabiting the deepest chaparrals, which they never quit. They are inactive, and for the most of the time sit about in flocks in these thickets, feeding on leaves. The Mexican name of Chacalacca is supposed to be derived from the noise with which at times they make the valleys ring, and which may be well imitated in kind, but not in strength, by putting the most stress upon the last two syllables. No sooner does one take up the song than others chime in from all quarters, till, apparently exhausted, the noise gradually dies off into an interlude, only to be again renewed. These concerts take place in the morning and evening. The birds are quite gentle, are easily tamed, and are said to cross with the common domestic fowl.
Mr. Dresser states that the Chacalacca is very common near Matamoras and Brownsville, and that in the autumn great numbers are exposed for sale in the market of the latter place. The Mexicans are said to hold it in high esteem for its fighting qualities, and often keep it in a domesticated state and cross it with the common fowl, making use of the hybrid for cock-fighting. Mr. Dresser was so informed by many Mexicans, upon whose word he placed reliance, and was an eyewitness of a fight in which one of these hybrids was engaged. Mr. Dresser had a tame one, when at Matamoras, that became so familiar that he could hardly keep it out of his room. This bird would occasionally go away for a day or two, and pay a visit to the poultry belonging to a neighbor; whenever he missed it, he had only to go to a poultry-yard near the house, where it could generally be found.
This species was first taken within the United States by Colonel McCall, who obtained it in Texas, and who enjoyed and improved unusually good opportunities to observe the habits and manners of this bird. From his notes, quoted by Mr. Cassin, we give the following:—
“This very gallant-looking and spirited bird I saw for the first time within our territory in the extensive forests of chaparral which envelop the Resaca de la Palma. Here, and for miles along the Lower Rio Grande, it was abundant; and throughout this region the remarkable and sonorous cry of the male bird could not fail to attract and fix the attention of the most obtuse or listless wanderer who might chance to approach its abode. By the Mexicans it is called Chiac-chia-lacca, an Indian name, without doubt derived from the peculiar cry of the bird, which strikingly resembles a repetition of these syllables. And when I assure you that its voice, in compass, is equal to that of the Guinea-fowl, and in harshness but little inferior, you may form some idea of the chorus with which the forest is made to ring at the hour of sunrise. At that hour, in the month of April, I have observed a proud and stately fellow descend from the tree on which he had roosted, and, mounting upon an old log or stump, commence his clear, shrill cry. This was soon responded to in a lower tone by the female, the latter always taking up the strain as soon as the importunate call of her mate had ceased. Thus alternating, one pair after another would join in the matutinal chorus, and, before the rising sun had lighted up their close retreat, the woods would ring with the din of a hundred voices, as the happy couples met after the period of separation and repose. When at length all this clatter had terminated, the parties quietly betook themselves to their morning meal. If surprised while thus employed, they would fly into the trees above, and, peering down with stretched necks, and heads turned sideways to the ground, they would challenge the intruder with a singular and oft-repeated croaking note, of which it would be difficult to give any adequate idea with words alone.”
Colonel McCall adds that the volubility and singularity of its voice is its most striking and remarkable trait. While on his march from Matamoras to Tampico he had encamped, on the 30th of December, at the spring of Encinal, whence, a short time before sunset, he rode out in search of game. Passing through a woodland near the stream, his ears were saluted with a strange sound that resembled somewhat the cry of the panther (Felis onca). He was at a loss to what animal to ascribe it, and, dismounting, crawled cautiously through the thicket for some distance, until he came upon an opening where there were some larger trees, from the lower branches of one of which he ascertained that the sound proceeded. There he discovered a large male bird of this species, ascending towards the top of the tree, and uttering this hitherto unheard sound, as he sprang from branch to branch in mounting to his roost. In a few moments his call was answered from a distance, and soon after he was joined by a bird of the year. Others followed, coming in from different quarters, and there were in a little while five or six upon the tree. One of these discovered the intruder and gave the alarm. The singular cry of the old bird ceased, and they all began to exhibit uneasiness and a disposition to fly, whereupon Colonel McCall shot the old bird.
Colonel McCall also states that the eye is a remarkable feature in the living birds of this species, being full of courage and animation, equal, in fact, in brilliancy to that of the finest gamecock. He frequently noticed this bird domesticated by the Mexicans at Matamoras, Monterey, etc., and going at large about their gardens. He was assured that in that condition it not unfrequently crossed with the common fowl.
In the wild state the eggs are said to be from six to eight, never exceeding the last number. They are white, without spots, and rather smaller than a pullet’s egg. The nest is usually on the ground, at the root of a large tree or at the side of an old log, where a hole several inches deep is scratched in the ground; this is lined with leaves, and the eggs are always carefully covered with the same when the female leaves them for the purpose of feeding. If disturbed while on her nest, she flies at the intruder with great spirit and determination.
Eggs of this species, from Matamoras, are of an oblong-oval shape, equally pointed at either end, and measure 2.35 inches in length by 1.65 in breadth. They are of a dirty-white color with a light tint of buff, and have a slightly roughened or granulated surface.
Family MELEAGRIDÆ.—The Turkeys.
Char. Bill moderate; the nasal fossæ bare. Head and neck without feathers, but with scattered hairs, and more or less carunculated. An extensible fleshy process on the forehead, but no development of the bone. Tarsus armed with spurs in the male. Hind toe elevated. Tail nearly as long as the wing, truncate, of more than twelve feathers.
The family Meleagridæ, or Turkeys, as at present known, is entirely confined to North and Middle America, and represented only by the genus Meleagris. It forms, in combination with the Guinea-fowls (Numididæ), the Pheasants and common fowls (Phasianidæ), and the Grouse and Partridges (Tetraonidæ), a peculiar group, to which the name Alecteropodes has been given by Professor Huxley; this group is well distinguished from the Cracidæ and the Megapodidæ (which form together an opposed group, called Peristeropodes), in addition to the characters enumerated under the family names, by salient characters developed in the sternum. In the present family and its relations, as all may recall from experience at the dinner-table, the sternum, or breast-bone, is divided into a long narrow keel (lophosteon) extending far backwards; while towards the front, from each side, and separated by a very deep notch from the median portion, a wing (pleurosteon) originates obliquely, and, soon splitting in two, extends also far backwards; in front, two processes (called costal) project well forwards. In the Cracidæ and Megapodidæ, on the contrary, the sternum is not so split, the keel and wing, as above, being more continuous and the notch comparatively shallow; the costal processes are also comparatively small and obtuse.
Externally the Turkeys have considerable resemblance to the Guinea-fowls (Numididæ), but they differ from them in having a backward process of the second metacarpal bone, and in the form of the costal processes of the sternum and of the acromial process of the scapular; while they are distinguished from the Guinea-fowls and all others by the form of the pelvis (the post-acetabular area is greater than the pre-acetabular, and is also longer than broad), and by the furcula (wish-bone), which is very weak and straight, with its point (hypocleidium) straight and rod-like. To Professor Huxley we are indebted for having first pointed out most of these characters.
Although the number of known species of Meleagridæ as we understand them, is limited to two now living, the family was apparently well represented in former geological periods, no less than three having been already described from more or less perfect remains; of these, two have been found in the post-pleiocene of New Jersey, one of which (Meleagris altus, Marsh, or M. superbus, Cope) was taller than the common Turkey, while the other (Meleagris celer, Marsh) was much smaller. The third species (Meleagris antiquus, Marsh) lived at a still earlier date, its remains having been obtained in the miocene beds of Colorado.
Genus MELEAGRIS, Linnæus.
Meleagris, Linnæus, Syst. Nat. 1735. (Type, Meleagris gallopavo, Linn.)
¼ ¼ ¼
Meleagris gallopavo.
Gen. Char. Legs with transverse scutellæ before and behind; reticulated laterally. Tarsi with spurs. Tail rounded, rather long, usually of eighteen feathers. Forehead with a depending fleshy cone. Head and the upper half of the neck without feathers. Breast of male in most species with a long tuft of bristles.
Species and Varieties.
M. gallopavo. Head livid blue, legs red, general color copper-bronze, with copper and green reflections, each feather with a velvet-black margin; all the quills brown, closely barred with white. Tail-feathers chestnut, narrowly barred with black; the tip with a very broad, subterminal black bar.
Tail-coverts dark purplish-chestnut throughout, with the tips not lighter. Tip of tail-feathers scarcely paler chestnut than the ground-color. Hab. Eastern Province of United States … var. gallopavo.
Tail-coverts chestnut, the tips much paler, sometimes almost white. Tip of tail-feathers light brownish-yellow or white; sometimes with the coverts broadly whitish. Hab. Southern portion of Western Province of United States, from Texas to Arizona. Table-lands of Mexico, south to Orizaba, Mirador, etc. … var. mexicanus.
The M. ocellatus[113] of Honduras and Yucatan is a very distinct species, and one which vies with the Phasianidæ of Asia in the brilliancy of its coloring. It is very rare in collections, and has a very restricted distribution.
Meleagris gallopavo, var. gallopavo, Linn.
WILD TURKEY.
Meleagris gallopavo, Linnæus, Syst. Nat. I, 1758, 156.—Gmelin, I, 1788, 732.—Latham, Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 618.—Stephens, in Shaw’s Zoöl. XI, i, 1819, 156 (domestic bird).—Bonap. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 79, pl. ix.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 1 and 33; V, 1839, 559, pl. i.—Ib. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 42, pl. cclxxxvii, cclxxxviii.—Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 630.—Reichenbach, Systema Av. 1851, pl. xxvi.—Ib. Icones Av. tab. 289.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 615.—Dresser, Ibis, 1866, 25 (Southeastern Texas, breeds).—Max. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 426. Meleagris americana, Bartram, Travels, 1791, 290. Meleagris sylvestris, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. IX, 447. Gallopavo sylvestris, Leconte, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. 1857, 179. Meleagris fera, Vieillot, Galerie Ois. II, 1824, 10, pl. x.—Gray. Cat. Gall. V, 42, 1867.—Wild Turkey, Clayton, Philos. Trans. XVII, 1693, 992.—Pennant, Philos. Trans. LXXI, 1781, 67.—Ib. Arctic Zoöl. No. 178. American Turkey, Latham, Syn. II, ii, 676. Gallopavo sylvestris, Novæ Angliæ, Ray, Syn. 51. Gallopavo sylvestris, Catesby, Carol. I, 1730, App. p. xliv.—Brisson, Orn. V, 1760, 162.
Meleagris gallopavo.
Sp. Char. 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 us 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.
Male. Length, 48.00 to 50.00; extent, 60.00; wing, 21.00; tail, 18.50. Weight, 16 to 35 lbs. Female. Weight about 12 lbs.; measurements smaller in proportion.
Hab. Eastern Province of the United States, and Canada. West along the timbered river-valleys towards the Rocky Mountains; south to the Gulf coast.
There is some question as to the names to be applied to the two races of Northern Meleagris, and especially as to which is entitled to bear the name of gallopavo. The original description of M. gallopavo quotes the New England Turkey as described by Ray, but as far as the characters given go refers rather to the domestic form, which is equivalent to M. mexicana of Gould. In this state of the case we therefore think it as well to use gallopavo for the eastern race, although the arguments of Major Leconte and others in favor of applying it to the wild Mexican, and its derivative the domestic variety, are not without much weight.
Habits. The Wild Turkey is found throughout eastern North America, from South Carolina northward, and from the Atlantic to Texas and Arkansas. It has probably become an extinct species in New England, though within a few years individuals have been shot in Montague, Mass., and in other towns in Franklin County. The construction of railroads, however, and the settlement of the country, have probably led to their final extermination; at least, I have known of none being taken within the limits of Massachusetts for several years.
In the unsettled portions of the Southern and Western States, and in the country watered by the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers and their affluents, these birds are comparatively plentiful, though the question of their final extinction is probably only one of time, and that not very distant. In Audubon’s day they were to be found along the whole line of the Alleghanies, where they still occur, but have become very wary and to be approached only with the greatest difficulty. In Louisiana and in Kentucky, Audubon found them most abundant, and in these States he enjoyed the most favorable opportunities for observing their very remarkable habits in regions then comparatively undisturbed by the intrusion of civilized man. They are said to be not uncommon in Virginia, and are not unfrequently met with even in the vicinity of Washington.
Dr. Woodhouse found this species abundant throughout the wooded portions of the Indian Territory and Texas. While in the Creek country his party killed numbers of them daily. Many of them were very large, and weighed upwards of nineteen pounds each, although at that time they were in poor condition. They were quite abundant along the Rio San Pedro in Texas.
Mr. Dresser found the Wild Turkey common in all the portions of Texas and Mexico that he visited, and particularly so on the rivers between San Antonio and the Rio Grande. His first Turkey hunt was on the Upper Medina River, about forty miles from San Antonio. It proved to be wary and difficult to approach in the daytime; but by watching to see where they roosted, and visiting them by moonlight, one or two could generally be secured. They generally preferred roosting in high cottonwood-trees, on the banks of a stream, perching as high up as possible. He once saw eleven Turkeys on one large bough of a cottonwood-tree on the Medina. When the pecan-nuts are ripe the Turkeys become very fat, as they are extremely fond of these nuts, which are very oily. One very plump bird was found, after it had been dressed, to weigh sixteen pounds. Mr. Dresser was informed by the hunters, that, for a nest, the Turkeys scratch a hole in the ground, or make a sort of nest in the grass under a bush, and that the eggs resemble those of the tame Turkey, except in being smaller and more elongated in form. The Mexicans, on the Upper Rio Grande, sometimes domesticate the Wild Turkey, and at Piedras Negras Mr. Dresser saw two that had been caught when quite young and had become very tame. The female was then sitting, and the eggs, when examined, were found to agree with the account given him by the hunters.
Mr. Audubon, in his very full and minute account of their habits, speaks of them as irregularly migratory and gregarious, their migrations having reference only to the abundance of food, and the meeting together in the same localities being to a large degree caused by the same source of attraction,—the supply of mast in certain regions. In this way they desert sections where the supply is exhausted, and advance towards those where it is more plentiful.
Late in October these birds assemble in flocks in the rich bottom-lands of the Western rivers, the male birds associating in parties of from ten to a hundred, and keeping apart from the females. The latter are simultaneously moving into the same regions, but only in small family groups, each leading its own flock, then nearly grown. Gradually they unite with other families, forming at length parties of seventy or eighty. They are said to avoid very carefully the old males, who have the very unparental disposition to destroy the young birds even when nearly grown. These migrations are made on foot except when they are compelled to cross a stream. On their first coming to the banks of a river they are said to make a pause there of one or two days before they attempt to cross, the old males strutting about up and down the banks, making a loud gobbling, and calling to one another as if to raise their courage to a befitting point. Even the females and the young assume something of the same pompous demeanor, spreading out their tails, running round one another, and making a loud purring noise. At length, after this prolonged preparation for the passage, they all mount to the top of a high tree, and, at a signal given by their leader, take flight for the opposite shore. Occasionally some fall into the water, when these bring the wings close to the body, spread out the tail, and plying their legs with great vigor move rapidly towards the shore, where, by a violent effort, they extricate themselves from the water. After thus crossing a stream of any magnitude, they are often found in a bewildered state, and fall an easy prey to the hunter.
Where their food occurs abundantly they separate into smaller flocks, composed of birds of all ages and sexes. At times they are known to approach farmhouses, associate with the domesticated fowl, and enter the corn-cribs in quest of food, passing the fall and the winter in this manner.
Early in February the love-season is said to commence, the first demonstrations being made by the males, but for some time persistently avoided by the females. At this period the sexes roost apart. When a female utters a call-note, the male birds within hearing return the cry, uttering notes similar to those with which the domestic Turkey greets any very unusual sound. If the call-note has been uttered by a female on the ground, the males fly to the place, spreading and erecting their tails, drawing their heads back on their shoulders, depressing their wings with a quivering motion, and strutting pompously about. At the same time they emit from their lungs a succession of very peculiar puffs. On these occasions the males often encounter each other, and desperate contests ensue, which frequently have a fatal termination, caused by furious blows inflicted on the head. When one Cock-Turkey has thus destroyed its rival, it is said to caress the dead body in an apparently affectionate manner.
When the Turkeys have mated, the connection is supposed to last for that season, though a male Turkey is often known to have more than a single mate; and the hens are said also to keep apart from the males while they are laying their eggs, for the cock would inevitably destroy them. At the end of the love-season the males become emaciated, and cease to gobble. They then separate entirely from the females, and keep apart by themselves until they recover their strength, when they reunite in small flocks.
The female is said to begin to deposit her eggs about the middle of April, selecting for that purpose a place as much concealed as possible from her many enemies. The nest, always on the ground, consists of a few withered leaves in a hollow scratched out by the side of a fallen log, or the top of a prostrate tree, or under a thicket, or within the edge of a cane-brake, but always in a dry place. The eggs sometimes amount to twenty in number, though there are usually from ten to fifteen. They are described as of a dull cream-color, sprinkled with reddish dots. When the female leaves her nest, she is said to be very careful to cover them with leaves, so that it is always difficult for any one to find them. Mr. Audubon observed that Turkey-hens not unfrequently selected small islands in which to deposit their eggs, apparently on account of the great masses of drift-timber which accumulated at their heads, in which they could seek protection and shelter.
If a female is approached while sitting on her eggs, she rarely moves unless she is discovered. Mr. Audubon has frequently approached within a few paces of a nest, the female remaining undisturbed. They seldom abandon their nest when it has been discovered by man, but forsake it if any of the eggs have been destroyed by any kind of animal. If the eggs are taken or destroyed, the female prepares for another nest, but otherwise has only one brood in a season. Audubon also states that he has known several hens associate together, deposit their eggs in the same nest, and rear their broods together, having once found three hens sitting on forty-two eggs in a single nest, one female at least being always present to protect it. When the eggs are near hatching, the female will not leave her eggs under any circumstances, and will suffer herself to be made a prisoner rather than abandon them. The mother assists the young birds to extricate themselves from the egg-shell, caresses and dries them with her bill, and aids them in their first efforts to totter out of the nest. As the brood follow her, she is very watchful against Hawks or other enemies, spreads her wings a little to protect them, and calls them close to her side, keeping them on dry ground and carefully guarding them from wet, which is very injurious to them when young. When two weeks old, they begin to be able to follow their mother, at night to roost in the low limb of some tree, and to leave the woods in the daytime in quest of berries and other food. The young usually feed on various kinds of small berries and insects. The full-grown Turkeys prefer the pecan-nuts and wild grapes to any other kind of food.
They are also said to feed on grass, various kinds of plants, corn, and other grain, seeds, fruit, and also upon beetles, small lizards, tadpoles, etc. In feeding in the woods, they turn over the dry leaves with their feet, and seem instinctively to know the presence of suitable food. They not unfrequently betray their presence in the neighborhood by the bare places they thus leave behind them in the woods where they have been feeding.
After heavy falls of snow and the formation of a hard crust, the Turkeys are said to be compelled to remain several days on their roosts without food thus proving their capability of enduring a continued abstinence.
Turkeys are hunted in various ways and by different expedients to facilitate their destruction. In the spring they are attracted by drawing the air, in a peculiar manner, through one of the second joint-bones of a wing. The sound thus produced resembles the voice of the female, on hearing which the male comes up and is shot. The cry of the Barred Owl is also imitated at night where Turkeys are at roost, who betray the place by their rolling gobble, uttered when alarmed. One of the most common methods of capturing Wild Turkeys is by means of a trap known as a Turkey-pen. A covered enclosure is made, constructed of trees, about four feet high and of various sizes, closed everywhere except at one end, where a small opening is left through which a small trench is dug, sloping very gradually at both ends, into and from the pen. The portion nearest the enclosure is covered. This passage-way, the interior of the pen, and the vicinity of the opening, to some distance into the forest, are strewn with corn. The Turkeys, attracted by the corn, follow it into the pen, and when they wish to leave endeavor to get out by the sides, but have not intelligence enough to escape by the opening through which they entered. In this manner they are sometimes entrapped in great numbers.
In unsettled parts of the country, Wild Turkeys are often known to associate with tame ones, sometimes to fight with them and to drive them from their food.
Mr. Audubon supposed our common tame Turkey to have originated in these birds, yet in his accounts of the habits of the latter he mentions several indications of divergence. A Wild Turkey which he had reared almost from the shell, and which had become very tame, would never roost with the domesticated birds, but always betook itself at night to the roof of the house, where it remained until dawn.
Mr. Bachman states that Wild Turkeys kept in confinement, in a condition of partial domestication, but separate from the domestic birds, lose the brilliancy of their plumage in the third generation, become of a pale brown, and have here and there an intermixture of white feathers. On the other hand, Major Leconte states, most positively, that the Wild Turkey has never been known to become so nearly domesticated as to propagate its race in confinement, notwithstanding the many efforts made to accomplish this result. This statement is, however, negative, and must be taken with reservation. In 1852, in Mr. Barnum’s grounds, near Niagara Falls, I saw Wild Turkeys with broods of young birds, though how far successful this attempt proved in the sequel I do not know, and Dr. Bachman’s statement seems to be quite positive evidence that they can be thus reared.
Mr. Audubon describes the eggs of the Wild Turkey as measuring 2.87 inches in length and 2.00 in breadth, and rather pointed at one end; their ground-color is given as of a uniform pale-yellowish tint, marked all over with pale rusty-brown spots.
Specimens in my collection vary from 2.55 to 2.35 inches in length, and in breadth from 1.85 to 1.75 inches. They are of an elongate-oval shape, are pointed at one end, quite obtuse at the other. The ground is a rich dark cream-color, very generally spotted with rounded blotches of a rare umber-brown.
Meleagris gallopavo, var. mexicana, Gould.
MEXICAN TURKEY.
Meleagris mexicana, Gould, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1856, 61.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 618.—Coues, P. A. N. S. Philad. 1866, 93 (Fort Whipple, Arizona).—Elliot, Illust. II, pl. xxxviii.—Baird, Rept. Agricultural Dept. for 1866 (1867) 288.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 523. Meleagris gallopavo, Gray, Cat. Gallinæ, Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 42.
Sp. Char. Similar to var. gallopavo, but feathers of the rump, the tail-coverts, and tail-feathers, tipped with whitish, instead of dark rusty; gloss more greenish. ♂ (44,731, Mirador): Wing, 20.50; tail, 18.50; culmen, 1.00; tarsus, 6.50; middle toe, 3.50.
Hab. Rocky Mountains, from Western Texas to Arizona, and south along the table land of Mexico.
Wild Turkeys from the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains differ strikingly from those east of the Mississippi in the feathers of the sides of the body behind, and in the upper and under tail-coverts. These are all tipped with light brownish-yellow for about half an inch, more or less with the region, and the tail is tipped with the same. The chestnut ground of the tail and coverts is also considerably lighter. The gloss on the feathers of the rump is green, not purple. The coverts, too, lack in a measure the purple shade in the chestnut. The metallic reflections generally have rather more green than in the eastern bird.
In one specimen (♀, 10,030, from Fort Thorn) the light edgings are almost white, and so much extended as to conceal the entire rump. All the feathers of the under parts of the body are edged broadly with white, and the tail is tipped with the same for more than an inch. This specimen also has the head considerably more hairy than in the eastern skins, but the others from the same region do not differ so much in this respect from eastern ones.
Two specimens from the Llano Estacado of Texas are exactly intermediate between New Mexican skins and examples from Arkansas, the former being typical mexicana, and the latter slightly different from true gallopavo. These Texan specimens have the tips of the upper tail-coverts pale ochraceous, instead of pure white; in the Arkansas skins these tips are rufous-chestnut, instead of dark maroon-chestnut, as in typical gallopavo from Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Many, or indeed most, specimens of mexicana have the black subterminal zone of the tail with a more or less distinct metallic bronzing, which we have never seen in any specimens of gallopavo.
It is to this race that we are indebted for the origin of our domestic Turkey, and not to that of the eastern parts of North America.
Habits. There is very little on record as to the possession of distinctive peculiarities by this race of North American Turkeys. If, as is now generally supposed, it be the original source whence the domestic fowl was derived, we are all sufficiently conversant with its performances in the barnyard, and its excellences for the table.
Specimens of its eggs collected in Arizona exhibit no noteworthy differences from the gallopavo.
In the accompanying foot-note we reproduce an article on the origin of the domestic Turkey, by Professor Baird, published in the Report of the Agricultural Department for 1866, which contains some points of interest, bearing on the origin of the domestic Turkey and the habits of the Mexican variety.[114]
Family TETRAONIDÆ.—The Grouse.
As already stated, the Tetraonidæ are pre-eminently characterized among gallinaceous birds by their densely feathered tarsi, and by the feathers of the nasal fossa or groove, which fill it completely, and conceal the nostrils. The toes are usually naked (feathered to the claws in the Ptarmigans), and with pectinations of scales along the edges. The tail-feathers vary from sixteen to eighteen and even twenty in number; the tail is rounded, acute, or forked. The orbital region is generally somewhat bare, with a naked stripe above the upper eyelid, beset by short fringe-like processes, while many genera have an inflatable air-sac on the side of the neck.
The following synoptical table will give a general view of the North American Tetraonidæ, although the arrangement is more artificial than natural. The species of Tetrao and Bonasa inhabit wooded regions; Lagopus belongs to the more arctic portions of the continent and the snowy ridges of the Rocky Mountains; the others are found in the great prairies of the West, Centrocercus being confined to the sterile plains covered with sage or wormwood.
The following synopsis is intended to aid in defining the genera, but does not profess to constitute a natural arrangement.