Young male birds do not immediately put on the plumage of the paternal sire, and it is probable that this condition is not attained until the following spring. In the fall they resemble the mother, who differs from her lord only in having the black of the head glossed with ashy. The latter is ashy-blue above, with top of head and neck black. The under parts, and sides of the head to a brief space above the eye, are white. The under tail-coverts, as well as tibial feathers, are brown, while the concealed primaries are white. The bill is rather long, stout and awlshaped. The length is six inches, and the wing about three and three-quarters.
The eggs have a white ground in blown specimens, but when fresh they show a beautiful roseate tinge, with a tendency to a reddish hue, which is apparently due to the ferruginous and purplish spots and blotches with which they are so closely covered. Considerable variations of size prevail in these markings, from fine points to well-pronounced blotches, and there is also noticeable a predominance of the reddish-brown colors. The average dimensions of several sets before us, from half a dozen localities, are .80 by .62 inches. Single specimens may occasionally be found which, like Mr. Samuels's Adirondack specimen, may have a length of .70 of an inch, and a width of .57, but such are certainly abnormal productions. While the rule in our Northern States seems to be, according to the concurrent testimony of numerous writers, but a single brood annually, yet there is reason to believe that in the warm, semi-tropical sections of our country, the species may prove double-brooded.
Whether our species could ever be domesticated or not, it is impossible to say. But there is no doubt that, under similar circumstances, the same confiding tameness would be shown, as the interesting descriptions given in English works tell us is exhibited by the European species. The latter, we are told, when treated with kindness, will come regularly to be fed. Individuals have been known to approach within a foot of their benefactor, and even to capture bits of food thrown to them before the latter could have time to reach the ground.
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Plate XXXVII.—MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO VAR. AMERICANA, (Bartr.) Coues.—Wild Turkey.
A few years more this handsome bird, which was at one time found in great abundance over nearly the whole of the Eastern Province of the United States, will be numbered with the things that were. Its final extinction is only a question of time, and that not very remote. In the days of Audubon it was found along the entire range of the Alleghanies, where individuals do still exist, but they have been so molested by man, that they can only be approached with the greatest difficulty. At present they are quite abundant in the unsettled parts of our Southern and Western States, and in the regions drained by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In New England it has probably become extinct. The same may doubtless be predicated of portions of our Middle Atlantic States. To be sure there are localities where individuals may occasionally be observed, but with the construction of railroads, and the settlement of the country which invariably follows, we may expect the same fate to overtake them. Dr. Woodhouse met with the species in abundance in all the timbered portions of Texas and the Indian Territory, and Mr. Dresser found it common enough in the districts of Mexico and Texas which he visited. This was especially the case on the rivers between San Antonio and the Rio Grande.
Not migratory in the sense in which many of our smaller species are, yet these birds are addicted to roaming from one locality to another. These movements always occur in flocks of varying numbers, and have reference to food-matters. Where the supply of mast becomes exhausted, an advance is ordered towards richer pastures. If there is an abundance of food, the large flocks dissolve into smaller ones, composed of individuals of all ages and sexes. A paucity of the same, brought about by deep snows, induces the birds to approach the haunts of man, where they obtain a subsistence by consorting with the poultry, or by entering the open doors of corn-cribs.