Ii86 Home Nature-Study Course. 



The colors and markings of the plumage form the turkey's chief beauty. From 

 the skin of the neck, reaching half-way to the middle of the back, is a collar of 

 glittering bronze, with greenish purple lights, each feather tipped with a narrow, 

 jet black band. The remainder of the back is black with bronze edging on each 

 feather. The breast is like the collar but in its center protrudes a bunch of long 

 black bristles, called the " beard," which hangs limply downward when the birds 

 are feeding; but when the male stiffens all his muscles for a strut, the beard is 

 thrust out at right angles. Some hen turkeys have the beard, there being two 

 such in the flock mentioned. The primaries or long quills of the wings are barred 

 across with bands of black and white, the secondaries are very dark, shining 

 brown, with narrower bars of white; the bows or upper part of the wings show 

 the same flashing bronze as the breast and neck; each feather of the fan-shaped 

 tail is banded with black and brown and ends with a wide, black bar tipped with 

 an edging of white; the second row or tail coverts, are of a lighter brown but also 

 end with the black band and white tip. The colors of the hens are like the males 

 except that the bronze brilliance of breast, neck and wings is dimmed by a thin 

 line of white tipping each feather. 



When the " Gobbler " struts he lowers his wings and spreads the stiff primary 

 quills till their tips scrape the ground on each side of him; he lifts and spreads 

 into a semicircular fan the beautiful tail feathers, protrudes his chest with its 

 bristling beard, raises the iridescent plumage of his neck like a ruff, against which 

 he bends back his red-white-and-blue decorated head, and moves forward with 

 short, slow, mincing steps, the very embodiment of vanity. Not even the pea- 

 cock's rainbow spread of tail can express a greater self-valuation. 



His voice, too, has an obstreperous, " I'm here to be looked at " sound, though 

 when he is challenging a rival to a fight he changes his usual " gobble, gobble," 

 to a higher, more threatening " G-r-r-r-t, g-r-r-r-t," which causes a younger or 

 smaller bird to move quickly beyond his reach. The turkey is a brave fighter. 

 When beginning a fight the gobbler advances with wings lowered, and sideways, 

 as if guarding his body with the wing; the neck and beak are out-stretched; the 

 attack is so sudden that it is impossible to tell whether he strikes with both wing 

 and beak, or only with the latter. 



The Sunrise Dance. — This is a curious and very funny performance which 

 takes place " every bright sunny morning in the fall, but never when it rains 

 or is even dark and cloudy." I witnessed this dance one morning; while the dawn 

 was still faint and gray, the long row of birds on the barn ridge-pole stood up, 

 stretched legs and wings and flew down into the orchard beside the barnyard and 

 began a curious, high-stepping, " flip-flop " dance on the frosty grass. It con- 

 sisted of little, awkward, up-and-down jumps, varied by forward springs of about 

 a foot, with lifted wings. Both hens and males danced, the latter alternately 

 strutting and hopping and all " singing," the hens calling " Quit, quit," the males 

 accompanying with a high-keyed rattle sounding like a hard wood stick drawn 

 rapidly along a picket fence. As the sun came up and the sky brightened, the 

 exhibition ended suddenly by " The Captain's " making a rush at one of his 

 younger brethren who had dared to be spreading a tail too near to his majesty; 

 he then led the whole flock into the barnyard where they are fed daily. After- 

 ward they all straggled away into the field to hunt for exposed ears on the shocks 

 of com. 



