Bird #137 — Wild Turkey

meleagris (guinea-fowl) gallopavo (from gallus, a cock, and pavo, a chickenlike peafowl)

Wednesday, May 7, 1980 — 6:30 pm

Southeastern Missouri — along Amtrak tracks to Little Rock approximately 50 miles south of St. Louis

We were on an Amtrak train heading from St. Louis to Little Rock. I saw a Wild Turkey standing in a field about twenty yards from the tracks.  When the train went by, it flew up over a fence and landed at the edge of an open oak woods.  It was slimmer than your barnyard-variety turkey, and when it flew, I saw a rusty edge on its fanned tail.

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