File:The gallinaceous game birds of North America, including the partridges, grouse, ptarmigan, and wild turkeys (1897) (14565390578).jpg

Identifier: gallinaceousgame00elli (find matches)
Title: The gallinaceous game birds of North America, including the partridges, grouse, ptarmigan, and wild turkeys
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Elliot, Daniel Giraud, 1835-1915
Subjects: Game and game-birds Galliformes
Publisher: London : Suckling & co.
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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from that and all the otherraces in many particulars; and the hen is unlike that ofany other species or race of Turkeys known at thepresent day. No evidence of its intergrading w^ith thecommon species has yet been obtained, but it is expectedthat it would interbreed with that bird wherever thelimits of their dispersion came in contact. It has alwaysbeen confounded with the Common Wild Turkey, andalthough its peculiar coloring and marking had beenobserved and commented on by many ornithologists itwas not until lately that sufficient specimens were•obtained, and its restricted habitat known, to prove itsclaim to be considered as a distinct race. Its habitsare the same as those already described in the articles onthe other races, and in beauty and brilliancy of itsmetallic coloring, as well as in size, it is not inferior toany of the Wild Turkeys inhabiting Mexico and the restof the continent lying to the northward. The femalevaries greatly from the male, and in fact she is difTer- i8o
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45- Elliots Rio Grande Turkey. ELLIOTS RIO GRANDE TURKEY. i8i ently marked from the hens of all other species ofTurkeys; sufficiently characteristic in my opinion to givethe bird specific rank, although I retain its subspecificnomenclature. MELEAGRIS SYLVESTRIS ELLIOTT. Habitat.—Lowlands of southern Texas and eastern Mexico,from the Brazos River to Vera Cruz not above 2000 feet of eleva-tion. Northeastern Mexico. Adult Male.—Head, neck, mantle, upper wing-coverts, andbreast resemble those of the eastern Wild Turkey, AT. sylvestris;back and rump, jet black, with, in certain lights, a silvery^ graybar near the ends of all the feathers, and a narrower one on thetip, both with roseate reflections; upper tail-coverts, broadlytipped with ochraceous buff (and this is the general color of thelower rump and upper tail-coverts), remaining parts, chestnut,irregularly crossed with black lines, succeeded by a black barwith metallic copper bronze reflections; back and rump, jetblack; lower back

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