File:Lost and vanishing birds; being a record of some remarkable extinct species and a plea for some threatened forms (1898) (14728582986).jpg

Identifier: lostvanishingbir00dixo (find matches)
Title: Lost and vanishing birds; being a record of some remarkable extinct species and a plea for some threatened forms
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Dixon, Charles, 1858-1926
Subjects: Birds -- England Extinct birds
Publisher: London, J. Macqueen
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ur, butthe males have the feathers of the neck tufts fewerin number, and the longest ones lanceolate inshape. THE AMERICAN TURKEY (meLEA GRJS AMERICANA) rpHE Turkey of the United States is not the-^ species that was imported into Europe earlyin the sixteenth century, apparently by theSpaniards, and from which the domestic breed,now such a familiar feature of the English farm-yard, has descended. The latter species, possiblythe sole progenitor of the tame race, has its homeupon the tablelands of Mexico, and, so far as wecan ascertain, is still a common bird and likely toremain so. The American Turkey, the subject ofthe present notice, is unfortunately bordering onextinction; and the same may be said of thesub-specific form found in Florida (Meleagrisarnericana osceola). In the early days ofAmerican colonisation, the Wild Turkey wascommon enough and widely distributed throughoutall areas suitable to its requirements; but as its ancient haunts became more and more populated 256 Plate ix.
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THE AMERICAN TURKEY ,* tl> THE AMERICAN TURKEY 257 with white settlers, who not only destroyed thebird, but cleared away its cover, it graduallydecreased in numbers, so that the day seems notfar distant when a Turkey will be as rare inthe United States as it is in an English county!As Bendire remarks, there are plenty of recordstestifying to the former abundance of the AmericanTurkey throughout the Southern New EnglandStates, and of its existence in Southern Maine;but at the present day its total extirpation east ofthe Mississippi and north of the Ohio River isonly a question of a few years. The Turkey, like most game birds, is a resident,Bendire writes of its habits as follows: The WildTurkey is essentially a woodland bird, and inhabitsthe damp and often swampy bottom-lands alongthe borders of the larger streams as well as thedrier mountainous districts found within its range,spending the greater part of the day on the groundin search of food, and roosting by night in thetallest t

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