LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

[The grandest bird of the American continent.]Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
[Plate I. Figs. 1 to 5. Types: M. antiqua; M. celer. Marsh]30
[Plate II. Figs. 6 to 10. Views of the skulls of wild turkeys]45
[Plate III. Fig. 11. Left lateral view of the skull of an old male wild turkey]60
[Plate IV. Figs. 12 to 16. Views of the cranium and skull of the turkey]75
[Plate V. Figs. 17 to 19. Views of the skull of wild turkeys, and skeleton of the left foot of a wild turkey]80
[Plate VI. Figs. 20 to 23. Eggs of wild turkey]90
[Plate VII. Fig. 24. Nest of a wild turkey in situ]102
[Note the full chest of the gobbler on the left. This is the breast sponge]106
[Nest located in thick brush on top of a ridge in Louisiana]112
[Hen, wild turkey, and three young]116
[The beginning of the strut]124
[ The chief of all his enemies is the "genus homo"]142
[An ideal turkey country. They will go a long way to roost in trees growing in water]156
[A hermit. It would take an expert turkey hunter to circumvent this bird]160
[Big woods in Louisiana where the old gobblers roam at will. A delightful place in which to camp]174
[Jordan's Turkey Call (cut in text)]183
[I soon saw the old gobbler stealing slowly through the brush]190
["Cluck," "put," "put," there stands a gobbler, within twenty paces to the left]202
[Suddenly there was a "Gil-obble-obble-obble," so near it made me jump]206
[The soft, gentle quaver of the hen has no effect on the ear of the young gobbler]216

[INTRODUCTION]

Although many eminent naturalists and observers have written of the turkey from the date of its introduction to European civilization to the present time, there has been no very satisfactory history of the intimate life of this bird, nor has there been a satisfactory analysis of either the material from which our fossil turkeys are known, or the many writings concerning the early history of the bird and its introduction to civilization. I have attempted in this work to cover the entire history of this very interesting and vanishing game bird, and believe it will fill a long-felt want of hunters and naturalists for a more detailed description of its life history.

This work was begun by Chas. L. Jordan and would have been completed by him, except for his untimely death in 1909.