Wilcox County Research Articles

A Recurrent Color Aberrancy in the Wild Turkey

Descriptions and photographs of three schizochroistic pale wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo osceola) specimens are presented, with comments on other color aberrancies in the species. It is concluded that the specimens described probably lack a single brownish pigment, and it is suggested that they represent a recurrent mutant condition. No plausible connection between the miscoloration described and the crossing of the wild stock with domestic turkeys is believed to exist. Pale-colored wild turkeys are regularly reported by laymen, and some have been mentioned in wildlife literature (Wright 1915, Mosby and Handley 1943, Bailey 1955, McIlhenny 1914, Latham 1956, and others); but apparently few of these specimens have been preserved, and none has been described in detail. I would like to describe three pale specimens recently secured from northeastern Florida and add some original observations of miscolored wild turkeys. On several occasions during 1958 and 1959, I saw pale-colored, wild turkey hens along the Alabama River in Wilcox County, Alabama. The sightings probably refer to four or five individuals, including a nearly white hen with half-grown poults of normal color, in mid-July, 1958. The pale hens were all very similar in color to the Florida specimens described below. During September, 1962, I found three pale-colored, wild turkeys in Baker County, Florida, and secured and preserved them the following month. On October 9, 1962, specimen number 30 (Fig. 1), a juvenile hen, was taken and on October 10, specimens 31 (Fig. 1) and 32 (Fig. 2) were obtained. Specimen 29 (Fig. 1), a hen, and sibling to specimens 31 and 32, was taken on September 25, 1962. Specimen numbers refer to my private collection.

"Progress" in the South

Land reform is a red-hot issue in China and Italy, they tell me. Well, just mention the idea in Wilcox County and see how long you last, a Negro teacher told me when I arrived in Alabama.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Lower Peachtree Area Wilcox County, Alabama: GEOLOGICAL NOTES

Lower Peachtree Area Wilcox County, Alabama: GEOLOGICAL NOTES

The Limestone Prairies of Wilcox County, Alabama

Wilcox County lies just south of the well-known black prairie belt of Alabama, and all available statistics of soils, vegetation, population and agriculture point to its being the most fertile county south of that belt. Much of its fertility is due to the presence of several square miles of strongly calcareous soils in the northeastern half. A strip averaging four or five miles wide at the inland edge of the county is characterized by the Ripley formation (uppermost Cretaceous), which has considerable limestone and marl in it, and east of the Alabama River this is bordered on the south by the Midway limestone, of lowest Eocene age. The superficial non-calcareous clays and sands (commonly, or at least formerly, referred to the Lafayette formation) which cover much of the surface of the coastal plain farther south and east are very limited in extent in Wilcox County, so that most of its soils are residual from the Cretaceous and Eocene strata. In Dr. Eugene A. Smith's report on the coastal plain of Alabama, published by the state geological survey early in i895 (pp. I94, 59I, 592), the cedar brakes on that phase of the Midway formation called by him the Nautilus rock (from one of its characteristic fossils) in the eastern part of Wilcox County are briefly described. In the soil survey of this county by R. A. Winston and N. E. Bell, published by the U. S. Bureau of Soils in March, i9i8, the limestone soils are located for the first time on a map. Four types of distinctly calcareous soils are described in the soil survey report, aggregating 35,264 acres or a little more than six percent of the area of the county. In order of extent they are Sumter clay, clay, 'Trinity clay, and Houston fine sandy loam.'1 It happens that practically none of these are visible from any of the railroads traversing the county, and I never saw any of them until I made a special trip on foot for the purpose, across country from Greenville to Snow Hill on June II-I2,

Palæontological Papers

FOSSIL floras figure largely in the recent publications of the United States Geological Survey. In Professional Paper g8-H, F. H. Knowlton describes thirteen species of plants from the Fox Hills Sandstone of S. Dakota, only four of which were previously known. Remains are scanty, since the beds are marine; but their interest lies in their position between series, the Montana and Laramie formations, that contain abundant plants. The affinities are distinctly with the Upper Cretaceous, and the flora seems to have been well supplied with moisture along a shore-line. E. Wilber Berry (Prof. Paper 91) furnishes a detailed report, accompanied by 117 plates, en “The Lower Eocene floras of South-Eastern North America.” The material is derived from the widely spread Wilcox series, Which is typically developed in Wilcox County, Alabama, and is known through Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Except for a small fauna (a “faunule”) recently discovered in Mississippi, the almost entire absence of animal remains in this vast area is remarkable. Insects, which must have been abundant, are represented merely by the traces of their activities among the plant-remains. The flora is of Ypresian age (p. 152), and contains thirty-nine genera in common with that of Alum Bay in the Isle of Wight. Identical climatic conditions on both sides of the Atlantic are implied.