EASTERN TURKEY 329 



Wild turkeys are essentially woodland birds. When the Eastern 

 States were largely covered with virgin forests, they ranged widely 

 over the whole of these districts. As the land became cleared they 

 often resorted to clearings, open fields, savannas, or meadows in 

 search of grasshoppers, other insects, berries, and other foods. As 

 their numbers were reduced by persistent hunting, they became very 

 shy and were forced to retire to the wooded hills and mountains, 

 where in many places they made their last stand. There are many 

 hills and creeks named for this bird because turkeys were once com- 

 mon there. Turkeys are now found, in the Northern and Eastern 

 States, only in the more remote and heavily wooded mountains, the 

 wildest and least frequented forests, or the most inaccessible swamps, 

 far from the haunts of man. In the Southern States they are much 

 more abundant and more widely distributed. M. L. Alexander 

 (1921) says of their haunts in Louisiana, which are typical: 



The determining factor in the distribution of turkeys is the occurrence of 

 oaks, wild pecans, beech and other nut-bearing trees. It is chiefly the oaks 

 that attract them to the flatwoods type of river lands, while the beech, chin- 

 quapin, and certain species of oaks furnish the mast on the slopes of creeks, 

 ravines and small rivers in pine regions. Dogwood, holly, black gum and 

 huckleberry are among other trees and shrubs, growing chiefly on slopes and 

 ridges, that furnish food for turkeys. Such food is not generally available, 

 however, unless there is sufficient undergrowth to protect the birds while 

 they are feeding. Late in the winter, after the best of the berries and mast 

 in the bottoms of the hill sections have been picked up, or washed out by the 

 rains, the turkeys frequent southerly slopes, with a good cover of brush, scratch- 

 ing in the fallen leaves and other woodland debris for such seeds and insects 

 as may be concealed there. 



Courtship. — The courtship display of the turkey gobbler is too well 

 known to need any description here. The wild turkey's display is 

 similar, with the same expansion of body plumage, erection and 

 spreading of the fan-shaped tail, swelling of the naked head orna- 

 ments, and the drooping and rattling of the wing quills, accompanied 

 by gobbling and strutting. 



Audubon (1840) mentions a peculiar feature of the gobbler at 

 this season, the " breast sponge." which fills the upper part of the 

 breast and crop cavity. This is a thick mass of cellular tissue, 

 which serves as a reservoir of sweet, rich oil and fat, on which the 

 gobbler draws to supply the loss of flesh and energy during the 

 mating season. 



The object of the display and the gobbling notes is, of course, to 

 attract the females. Turkeys are polygamous, the gobbler having 

 many mates and serving them all every day during the laying season 

 until his vigor is exhausted. The females separate from the males 

 before the mating season, and each hen comes to her favorite cock 

 once each day, for a short time, during the laying season. She 



