MELEAGRIS

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) A term employed by Linna?us 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 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 stitf hairs. The coverts of the tail are shorter and suffer than in the peacock, but can be erected and displayed in the same way. The tarsi of the male are armed with WMfc spurs. The common turkey (Jtteleagris gallopavo, L.) w as 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 (Me.leagris ocellata, Cuvier), has been discovered in Honduras: its domestication is greatly to be desired. [s. 748]