14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



hens, and the result of these settings is about eight young birds 

 reached maturity; but the Wild Turkey hens, their feelings 

 evidently outraged, disappeared for a long time, when one was 

 discovered on her nest, but nothing was seen of the other till both 

 hens apj^eared with about a dozen chickens each. Though late 

 birds, luckily our fine summer favoured them, and with only two 

 or three deaths in each brood these careful mothers have brought 



O 



them all up safely, proving how much better nature manages 

 these things than man even with all his appliances. 



These broods have been objects of great interest to us all the 

 season, for though coming daily near the house to get their 

 accustomed pick, the hens have kept them almost exclusively in 

 the woods, bringing them on to the small grass paddocks at the 

 edges of the coverts to enjoy the sunshine and feed on the 

 insects, etc. While the young birds were thus busily engaged, 

 the old hen would stand like a sentinel in the midst, her neck 

 stretched to its full extent and her head turned sharply from side 

 to side, while with her quick keen eye she watched, not only her 

 brood, but also for any approaching danger. If you approached 

 near, and there was not sufficient cover for her to hide in, she 

 crouched almost level with the ground with her head and neck 

 stretched out straight in front of her, and, at a warning chuck 

 from her, the young ones disappeared as if by magic, and were by 

 no means easy to discover in the tufts of grass, etc., in which they 

 had taken refuge. We have, in shooting, several times come 

 across these birds on the heather hill above the coverts, and 

 several times beat them out of the woods; and though the joke is 

 becoming a little old, it is no unusual thing for the beaters, after 

 their usual cautionary cry of " mark," on any game rising, instead 

 of the expected "woodcock," "hare," or "rabbit," to call out 

 "wild turkey!" and it was only the other day that, in firing at a 

 rabbit in the covert, it was found that I had shot a young Wild 

 Turkey, so that if this goes on it will be necessary to get a new 

 column added to the game-book. 



Our coverts being chiefly natural wood, such as birch and hazel, 

 and for the most part unenclosed, are not so well adapted for 

 these birds ; but in extensive enclosed woods I have no doubt they 

 would do well, and I am happy to say that there is every chance 

 of their being introduced into the fine old woods of Inveraray, 

 where, if anywhere, they ought to succeed. I sliould consider that 



