330 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



keeps the nest concealed from him and shuns him after the eggs are 

 laid, lest he might break the eggs to prolong his sexual enjoyment. 

 The gobbler often begins to display and gobble before he leaves his 

 roosting tree. He gobbles, watches, and waits until he sees the hen 

 approaching, or hears her responsive yelp or cluck. He flies down 

 to the ground, struts and gobbles again, and waits for the hen to 

 come to him. He probably knows how many hens he has in his 

 harem and keeps on strutting and gobbling until he has served them 

 all. He roosts in the vicinity and repeats the performance every day 

 until the laying season is over or until he becomes emaciated and 

 takes no further interest in the hens. 



Audubon (1840), who had far better opportunities for observing 

 the wild turkey than can ever be had again, writes: 



I have often been much diverted, while watching two males in fierce conflict, 

 by seeing them move alternately backwards and forwards, as either had obtained 

 a better hold, their wings drooping, their tails partly raised, their body- 

 feathers ruffled, and their heads covered with blood. If, as they thus struggle, 

 and gasp for breath, one of them should lose his hold, his chance is over, for 

 the other, still holding fast, hits him violently with spurs and wings, and in a 

 few minutes brings him to the ground. The moment he is dead, the conqueror 

 treads him under foot, but, what is strange, not with hatred, but with all the 

 motions which he employs in caressing the female. 



When the male has discovered and made up to the female (whether such 

 a combat has previously taken place or not), if she be more than one year old, 

 she also struts and gobbles, turns round him as he continues strutting, suddenly 

 opens her wings, throws herself towards him, as if to put a stop to his idle 

 delay, lays herself down, and receives his dilatory caresses. If the cock meet 

 a young hen, he alters his mode of procedure. He struts in a different manner, 

 less pompously and more energetically, moves with rapidity, sometimes rises 

 from the ground, taking a short flight around the hen, as is the manner of some 

 Pigeons, the Red-breasted Thrush, and many other birds, and on alighting, runs 

 with all his might, at the same time rubbing his tail and wings along the 

 ground, for the space of perhaps ten yards. He then draws near the timorous 

 female, allays her fears by purring, and when she at length assents, caresses 

 her. 



Nesting. — Audubon says on this subject, referring to the South- 

 ern States : 



About the middle of April, when the season is dry, the hens begin to 

 look out for a place in which to deposit their eggs. This place requires to be 

 as much as possible concealed from the eye of the Crow, as that bird often 

 watches the Turkey when going to her nest, and, waiting in the neighbourhood 

 until she has left it, removes and eats the eggs. The nest, which consists of 

 a few withered leaves, is placed on the ground, in a hollow scooped out, by 

 the side of a log, or in the fallen top of a dry leafy tree, under a thicket of 

 sumach or briars, or a few feet within the edge of a canebrake, but always in 

 a dry place. The eggs, which are of a dull cream colour, sprinkled with red 

 dots, sometimes amount to twenty, although the more usual number is from ten 

 to fifteen. When depositing her eggs, the female always approaches the nest 

 with extreme caution, scarcely ever taking the same course twice; and when 



