SC -poultry art, was 90 ingredients Holloptrida translation

[Decker, Terry D.]

I finally got my hands on some illustrations and descriptions of Agriocharis
ocellata and Melegaris gallopavo.    

A. ocellata (which has been renamed M. ocellata) appears to be slightly
smaller than most gallopavos, has "eyes" on its tail feathers, and no
"beard".  Their range is also smaller than I was lead to believe.  Head is
blue with wattles, but a couple illustrations show a white head.

M. gallopavo has five wild varieties.  The males and many females have
"beards," an appendage hanging from their breast.  The heads and upper necks
have a variety of colors purple to red, blue and white.  There is usually a
pronounced "snood" or fleshy appendage above the beak.  They range in size
from the relatively small M. g. silvestris, the Eastern Woodland turkey, to
M. g. gallopavo and M. g. intermedia, large plains birds.  M. g. gallopavo
is the Mexican turkey also called Gould's turkey, and probably the bird
brought back by Cortez.  M. g. intermedia is the Rio Grande turkey and
probably what I mistook for M. ocellata.  The other two varieties are M.g.
merriami, Merriam's turkey from the U.S. Southwest, and M. g. osceola, the
Florida turkey.  

The white turkeys are modern hybrids.

While trying to find more information, I chanced across the turkey census
for the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities which contains a
wealth of information.  You can find it at:

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/SPPA/TurkCensusRept.html

For Stefan and some of our other members in Texas, apparently the San
Antonio zoo has some specimens of M. ocellata.

Bear

> Actually, the commercial birds come in both white and black.  
> The difference is
> that they are MUCH larger than the wild turkey and cannot 
> fly.  The wild
> turkey...at least around here...is smaller, has brown 
> feathers and does fly a
> little.  I understand that they have a lot more dark meat, 
> and a "gamier" taste
> as well.
> 
> Kiri
> 
> allilyn at juno.com wrote:
> 
> > Commercial turkey farms seem to specialize in a 
> white-feathered bird,
> > which is, I suppose, the SA.  The traditional Pilgrim-type darkly
> > variegated feathered bird would be the game bird, then?
> >