12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



male and two females, caught in the woods near Sarnia, at the 

 most southerly extremity of Lake Huron in Canada. They had 

 been captured when quite young, and would be a little over two 

 years old when they arrived in this country. They came home 

 in one of our own ships and arrived in splendid order, having 

 apparently thriven well on the sea- voyage. 



The different characters of the sexes were very marked, for 

 while the cock tried all in his power to get a dab at you with his 

 beak, or a dig at you with his long spur, the hens were of the 

 most timid, shy, and retiring disposition; and while the cock 

 strutted up and down behind the wooden bars of their house 

 with feathers all set up and evidently in very irascible mood, the 

 hens kept in the back ground, and by low chucks seemed to 

 try to quiet their lord's excitement. Finding the cock too 

 dangerous to trust with his liberty, we enclosed a run for them 

 with wire, with a house for shelter at one end supplied with a 

 roosting pole. 



That season the hens laid well, but being late in the year we 

 did not set any eggs. The eggs are a shade smaller than the 

 Common Turkey's eggs, and generally more distinctly marked, 

 although the colouring varies greatly. We then, after the fall of 

 the leaves, when we thought we could better keep our eye on 

 them, let the birds out of confinement; the cock behaved very 

 well for a short time, but fell into bad ways, and after he had 

 decapitated several fowls of one kind and another, we were 

 compelled to put him once more under lock and key. 



Next summer the hens laid splendidly, and we had a fine flock 

 of about twenty young birds, brought out under common hens, of 

 which seventeen reached maturity. These young birds, though 

 thus domesticated, showed their wild nature thoroughly, and 

 never would go under a roof, always roosting on the trees. A 

 pair of these young birds was given to a gentleman in Argyllshire, 

 with whom they have done very well, as he had seventeen young 

 Wild Turkeys the first year. Another pair was given to a friend 

 in Mid-Lothian, with whom they were not quite so successful, the 

 situation not being so suitable and the birds more disturbed, but 

 still I am glad to say they have done well enough to allow of the 

 hope of some of their progeny being turned out next season in 

 suitable coverts in Kinross-shire. A young cock of this flock (that 

 of 1867), which we still have, and which has never been in 



