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May, 1913 THE WILD TURKEYS O1' COLORADO' 105 'abundance of turkeys in eastern Kansas, and mentions meeting them west to the Little Arkansas River near the present town of Wichita; then he does not record them again until he reaches Bent's Fort, Colorado, near the present town of Las Animas, though he notes from day to day the more interesting birds seen. The previous year, I845, he made an expedition into New Mexico, starting from this same Bent's Fort, and records turkeys all the way from the Arkansas up the Las Animas to Raton Pass. Thence he passed to the headwaters of the Canadian River and down this stream to its mouth in Oklahoma. He does not mention seeing turkeys in all the country from the east side of Raton Pass for the next hundred miles until he is far out on the plains and almost to the 'New Mexico- Texas line. ? Fig. 32. A PART OF THE RANGES OF THE WILD TURKEY (?eleafris Kallopavo silveslris) AND THE M?RRIA? TURKEY (?elea? ?allopavo merriami) It thus seems that Long, Say, and Abert each found a wide space separat- ing the turkeys of Kansas and Texas from those of Colorado and New Mexico. Nor has any subsequent traveler reported the presence of the birds in this inter- vening space. The turkeys of Kansas aud of northwestern Texas are silvestris and those of the upper Arkansas in Colorado and of the region around Raton Pass are ?nerriami. It seems then logical to suppose that merria?i ranged down the Arkansas and Las Animas rivers to their junction and that the turkeys of Bent's Fort and vicinity belonged' to this fore. If the above reasoning,is cor- rect the eastern form of the wild turkey has never occurred in Colorado and must be omitted from the Colorado bird-list.