keep up with them. They have then a dangling and straggling way of running, which, awkward as it may seem, enables them to outstrip any other animal. I have often, when on a good horse, been obliged to abandon the attempt to put them up, after following them for several hours. This habit of running in rainy or very damp weather of any kind is not peculiar to the wild turkey, but is common to all gallinaceous birds. In America, the different species of grouse exhibit the same tendency."

During the breeding season, the males may be allured within gun-shot by imitating the call note of the female. It is done by forcibly drawing the air through one of the wing bones of a turkey, but it requires great practice, for the quick ear of the male immediately detects the slightest error of intonation, and immediately retreats.

The size of the wild turkey and the quality of the flesh vary according to abundance or scarcity of food. In districts where food is plentiful, the wild turkey is said to be superior to the tame bird for the table, and is in the highest season late in the autumn. In Mexico, however, the wild turkey, according to Her

nandez, is inferior to the domestic breed, its flesh being dry and hard; this, perhaps, is owing to the quality of the food.

The wild turkey is far superior in stature and beauty to the tame bird; the latter, even in America, its native country, is deteriorated by domestication; hence mixed breeds between the wild and tame are much valued, and procured when possible. "Eggs of the wild turkey have been frequently taken from their nests and hatched under the tame hen; the young preserve a portion of their uncivilized nature, and exhibit some knowledge of the difference between themselves and their foster mother, roosting apart from the tame ones, and in other respects showing the force of hereditary disposition. The domesticated young reared from the eggs of the wild turkey are often employed as decoy birds to those in a state of nature. Mr. William Bloom, of Clurfield, Pennsylvania, caught five or six wild turkeys. when quite chickens, and succeeded in rearing them. Although sufficiently tame to feed with his tame turkeys, and generally associate with them, yet they always retained some of their original propensities, roosting by them

selves, and higher than the tame birds, generally on the top of some tree or of the house. They were also more readily alarmed: on the approach of a dog, they would fly off and seek safety in the nearest woods. On an occasion of this kind, one of them flew across the Susquehanna, and the owner was apprehensive of losing it; in order to recover it, he sent a boy with a tame turkey, which was released at the place where the fugitive had alighted. This plan was successful, they soon joined company, and the tame bird induced his companion to return home. Mr. Bloom remarked that the wild turkey will thrive more and keep in better condition than the tame on the same quantity of food." C. L. Bonaparte.

The author last quoted states that some domesticated turkeys of a very superior metallic tint are sold in the Philadelphia and New York markets as wild ones: many of these require a practised eye to distinguish their true character, but they are always rather less brilliant, and have a broad whitish band at the top of the tail-coverts, and another at the top of the tail itself, which immediately betrays them: the real wild birds are destitute

of the whitish band on the tail-coverts, and the band at the top of the tail is neither so wide nor so purely white.

The female wild turkey is far inferior in size to the male; she is adult and in full colouring at four years' old, and then possesses the pectoral tuft of hair, of about four inches in length. Her weight is from nine to ten pounds, but the male varies from fifteen to twenty pounds in weight. Birds of thirty pounds are not rare; and instances have occurred, of their weight being thirty-six, and even forty pounds. In April and May, the males are thin, and out of condition; yet C. L. Bonaparte notices a specimen killed on the Missouri in April, which weighed twenty-two pounds, but which, when in good condition, must have exceeded thirty. The male wild turkey may be regarded as mature at the age of between three and four

years, but, for several years afterwards, increases in weight and the metallic lustre of the plumage.

It is much to be regretted that the wholesale destruction to which this noble bird is subjected throughout the whole extent of its range, tends every year to diminish its numbers, insomuch that in a comparatively short

period of time, the wild turkey will rank in the list of animals which man has utterly extirpated.

Besides the wild turkey of North America, a distinct species, the Honduras turkey (Meleagris ocellata) is found in certain parts of central America, adjacent to Mexico. The first specimen, known formerly in Bullock's collection, now in the museum of Paris, was brought from the Bay of Honduras. A fine specimen is in the British Museum. This bird is considerably smaller than the common wild turkey, but is far more beautiful, the metallic hues and irridescence of its plumage equalling those of some of the humming birds,-black, golden, bronze, blue, emerald green, and rufous, are intermingled in exquisite contrast; and on the tail-feathers and upper tail-coverts, there are beautiful ocellated markings. The legs are lake-red.

Of the habits of this refulgent species, nothing is distinctly known. It appears to be very rare, unless, perhaps, in some localities, which are as yet unexplored.