The TUFT-BEAKED PINTADO (Numida ptilorhyncha), a very similar species, has the stiff feathers that encircle the throat of a velvety black, whilst those of the body are dark brownish grey, dotted with white. These markings become more perceptible on the upper wing-covers, and take an oval form on the outer web of the shoulder-feathers; the under side has a blueish grey lustre; the breast, sides, and lower tail-covers are decorated with large round spots. The brownish grey quills are more or less distinctly margined with light grey or whitish edges; the lower secondaries have a light blueish grey border, tinted with two shades of brownish grey, and, like the tail-feathers, are very distinctly spotted. The eye is brown and the cheek light blue, as are the large broad lappets; the throat is flesh-red, the bare crown of the head greyish yellow, and the tuft of bristle-like hairs at the base of the upper mandible, from which these birds derive their name, light yellow; the bill is reddish at its base and grey at its tip; the foot dark greyish brown.
This species is a native of Abyssinia and Nubia, where it frequents valleys bordered with thickets, and renders itself remarkable by its extremely harsh voice. It seldom flies, and then only for a short distance to escape from danger. The flesh is exceedingly savoury.
The TURKEYS (Meleagrides) are large but comparatively slender birds, with long legs and short wings and tail; the moderate-sized head and neck are unfeathered and covered with warts; the short, strong beak, from which depends a fleshy wattle, has the upper mandible curved and vaulted. The high foot is furnished with long toes, the rounded wing has its third quill longer than the rest; and the tail, composed of eighteen broad, upright feathers, is also slightly rounded at its extremity. The thick heavy plumage is unusually glossy. One remarkable characteristic of these birds is the bristle-like structure of some of the breast-feathers, some of which are much longer than those of the rest of the body. The members of this group inhabit the forests, prairies, and open tracts of North America; the males wandering about the country in small parties of from ten to one hundred, and seeking their food apart from the females, who are occupied in feeding their young. Turkeys are found in a wild state from Canada to Panama, and so far from being improved by the care of man, have remarkably degenerated in a state of domesticity. When wild they often weigh from twenty to sixty pounds, and when standing upright, measure at least three feet in height. Formerly these birds were common in Canada and the central parts of the United States, but they have gradually fallen back before the advance of civilisation, although they only seem to yield their country inch by inch to the husbandman.
THE PUTER, OR WILD TURKEY.
The PUTER, or WILD TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo), is of a brownish yellow on the upper parts of the body, which gleam with a beautiful metallic lustre, each feather having a broad resplendent black edge. The hinder portions of the back-feathers and tail-covers are dark reddish brown, striped green and black; the yellowish brown breast is darkest at its sides; the belly and legs are brownish grey, and the feathers on the rump pale black, faintly edged with a darker shade. The quills are blackish brown, the primaries greyish white, and the secondaries brownish, striped with white; the tail-feathers are brown, dotted and marked with black. The bare parts of the head and throat are pale sky-blue, the warts that cover the face bright red, and the lower region of the eye ultramarine-blue. The eye is yellowish blue, the beak whitish grey, and the foot pale violet or bright red. This species is from forty to forty-four inches long, and from fifty-three to sixty broad; the wing measures eighteen and the tail fifteen inches. The plumage of the hen, though somewhat resembling that of the male, is much less beautifully coloured; her length does not exceed thirty-five inches, and her breadth forty-eight inches and a half; the wing measures fifteen and the tail eleven inches.
THE OCELLATED TURKEY (Meleagris ocellata), ONE-FIFTH NATURAL SIZE.
Of the many accounts respecting the life of the Wild Turkey of North America, none is more excellent than the following from the pen of Audubon:—"The unsettled parts of the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, an immense extent of country to the north-west of those districts upon the Mississippi and Missouri, and the vast regions drained by these rivers from their confluence to Louisiana, including the wooded parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama, are most abundantly supplied with this magnificent bird. It is less plentiful in Georgia and the Carolinas, becomes still scarcer in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and is now very rarely seen to the east of the last-mentioned States." It is already extirpated from the thickly-peopled portions of the continent.
"The Turkey," continues Audubon, "is irregularly migratory, as well as irregularly gregarious. When the supply of food in one portion of the country happens greatly to exceed that of another, the Turkeys are insensibly led towards that spot, by gradually meeting in their haunts with more fruit the nearer they advance towards the place where it is most plentiful. In this manner flock follows after flock, until one district is entirely deserted, while another is, as it were, overflowed by them.