MELEAGRIS

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) A term employed by Linnaeus to designate the genus of which the turkey is the type. The head and upper part of the neck is invested with a plumele and carunculated skin: there is a cutaneous appendage of a similar construction under the throat, and another of a conical form on the forehead, which in the male, when under excitement, can be distended and elongated so as to hang over the point of the beak. From the lower part of the neck of the adult male hangs a tuft or ta el of stiff hairs. The coverts of the 7i9 MELODY, tail are shorter and stiffer than in the peacock, but can be erected and displayed in the same way. The tarsi of the male are armed with weak spurs. The common turkey {Meleaerts gallopavo, L.) was introduced into Europe in the 16th century. Its size, and the excellence of its flesh, led to its being cultivated with peculiar care: it is now common, and widely dispersed. Its wild original of the American woods is of a greenish colour, with a copper glo . A second, and much more beautiful species ( Meleagris occllata, Cuvier), has been discovered in Honduras: its domestication is greatly to be desired. [s. 742]