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Home Nature-Study Course. 



sound com or wheat is the best food for her at this time. When sitting she is very 

 cross and will fight most courageously when molested on her nest. 



Turkey nestlings are rather large, with long bare legs and scrawny thin necks, 

 and they are very delicate during the first six weeks of their lives. Their call is 

 a plaintive " peep, weep," and when a little turkey feels lost its cry is expressive 

 of great fear and misery. But if the mother is freely ranging she does not seem 

 to be much affected by the needs of her brood; she will fight savagely for them 

 if they are near her, but if they stray — and they usually do — she does not seem 

 to miss or hunt for them, but strides serenely on her way, keeping up a constant 

 crooning " kr-rit, kr-rit," to encourage the cheeping brood to follow. As a con- 

 sequence, the poults are lost or get draggled and chilled by struggling through 

 wet grass and leaves, that are no obstacle to the mother's strong legs, and many 

 die. If the mother is confined in a coop it should be so large and roomy that she 

 can move about without trampling on the poults, and it should have a dry floor 

 as dampness is fatal to the little ones. 



For the first week the poults should be fed five times a day, and for the next 

 five weeks they should have three meals daily. They should be given only just 

 about enough to fill each little crop and none left over to be trodden under their 

 awkward little feet. Their quarters should be kept clean and free from vermin. 



