A New Race of Wild Turkey

Abstract

For many years it has been known that Wild Turkeys inhabit the western slopes of the Sierra Madre of northwestern Mexico, but, so far as a fairly exhaustive search of records indicates, no actual specimens had been taken by a zoologist until our 1933 expedition to southeastern Sonora. In May of that year an adult male was observed by the author near Mirasol, Sonora, and on the 19th two females were secured near Barromicon, one on the Sonora side of the Sonora-Chihuahua boundary line and one on the Chihuahua side. On the next year's expedition a female was collected by the author at Guayachi, Chihuahua, on the western slope of the Sierra. These birds prove to be different from Meleagris gallopavo merriami of Arizona and also from the birds of eastern Durango and the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre in Chihuahua, and are herewith described.

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