CHAR. Bill moderate; the nasal fossæ bare. Head and neck without
feathers, but with scattered hairs, and more or less carunculated. An
extensible fleshy process on the forehead, but no development of the
bone. Tarsus armed with spurs in the male. Hind toe elevated. Tail
nearly as long as the wing, truncate, of more than twelve feathers.
The family _Meleagridæ_, or Turkeys, as at present known, is entirely
confined to North and Middle America, and represented only by the
genus _Meleagris_. It forms, in combination with the Guinea-fowls
(_Numididæ_), the Pheasants and common fowls (_Phasianidæ_), and the
Grouse and Partridges (_Tetraonidæ_), a peculiar group, to which
the name _Alecteropodes_ has been given by Professor Huxley; this
group is well distinguished from the _Cracidæ_ and the _Megapodidæ_
(which form together an opposed group, called _Peristeropodes_), in
addition to the characters enumerated under the family names, by salient
characters developed in the sternum. In the present family and its
relations, as all may recall from experience at the dinner-table, the
sternum, or breast-bone, is divided into a long narrow keel (lophosteon)
extending far backwards; while towards the front, from each side,
and separated by a very deep notch from the median portion, a wing
(pleurosteon) originates obliquely, and, soon splitting in two, extends
also far backwards; in front, two processes (called costal) project
well forwards. In the _Cracidæ_ and _Megapodidæ_, on the contrary,
the sternum is not so split, the keel and wing, as above, being more
continuous and the notch comparatively shallow; the costal processes are
also comparatively small and obtuse.
Externally the Turkeys have considerable resemblance to the Guinea-fowls
(_Numididæ_), but they differ from them in having a backward process of
the second metacarpal bone, and in the form of the costal processes of
the sternum and of the acromial process of the scapular; while they are
distinguished from the Guinea-fowls and all others by the form of the
pelvis (the post-acetabular area is greater than the pre-acetabular,
and is also longer than broad), and by the furcula (wish-bone), which
is very weak and straight, with its point (hypocleidium) straight and
rod-like. To Professor Huxley we are indebted for having first pointed
out most of these characters.
Although the number of known species of _Meleagridæ_ as we understand
them, is limited to two now living, the family was apparently well
represented in former geological periods, no less than three having
been already described from more or less perfect remains; of these,
two have been found in the post-pleiocene of New Jersey, one of which
(_Meleagris altus_, Marsh, or _M. superbus_, Cope) was taller than the
common Turkey, while the other (_Meleagris celer_, Marsh) was much
smaller. The third species (_Meleagris antiquus_, Marsh) lived at a
still earlier date, its remains having been obtained in the miocene beds
of Colorado.