FLORIDA TURKEY 341 



County. There, in 1930, 1 saw a small band of them on the outskirts 

 of a protected citrus plantation; and one day I saw one cross the 

 Tamiami Trail from one tract of pine woods to another; shooting 

 is prohibited for a mile on each side of this road. We often saw 

 their tracks around the borders of the pine woods and open savannas, 

 near the cypress swamps ; they feed in such places and roost at night 

 in the large cypresses. 



Courtship. — Doctor Ralph says further: 



These birds are polygamous, and the female takes all the cares and duties 

 of incubation upon herself. The gobblers are very pugnacious, and will often 

 fight fiercely for the favors of the hens. The love season begins in Florida 

 about the middle of February and lasts for about three months, and during 

 this period the gobblers frequently utter their call and are then easily decoyed 

 within gunshot. Native hunters have informed me that the hens roost by 

 themselves at this season of the year. 



Nesting. — On this subject Ralph writes: 



The nest is a slight depression in the ground, either at the foot of a tree 

 or under a thick bush or saw palmetto. It is lined sparingly with dead 

 leaves and grass, etc., but I could never find out whether this material was 

 placed there by the birds or was there originally. I think these birds raise 

 but one brood a season, though I have found fresh eggs as early as the middle 

 of March and as late as the 1st of May. I have never found more than thirteen 

 eggs in one nest, nor less than eight, unless they were fresh, the usual number 

 being ten. The chicks of this species are very tender, and as they follow their 

 mothers as soon as hatched I have often wondered how the latter could raise 

 so many as they do. The natives of Florida say that a hen Turkey will desert 

 her nest if the eggs are handled. Whether this be true or not I do not know, 

 for I never tried to find out but once, and then, though the bird was gone on 

 my second visit to the nest, I always had a strong suspicion that she was shot, 

 for its whereabouts was known to several persons besides myself. 



I have a set of 10 eggs in my collection that was taken on March 

 28, 190S, near Everglade; the nest was a hollow in the ground under 

 a saw palmetto, near the Big Cypress. We found a nest, from 

 which the young had hatched, on April 19, 1902, on the border of 

 Jane Green Swamps, Brevard County. It was a mere hollow in the 

 sand, lined with strips of palmetto leaves, under a small cabbage 

 palmetto; it was well shaded but not particularly well hidden, and 

 contained the broken shells of nine eggs. 



Eggs. — The eggs are similar to those of other wild turkeys. The 

 measurements of 56 eggs average 61 by 46.3 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 66 by 46.7, 62.5 by 48.8, 56.3 

 by 46.4, and 65.2 by 41 millimeters. 



Young. — F. M. Phelps (1914) relates the following experience: 



Late on the afternoon of April 18th, as we were working along an open glade 

 bordering a cypress swamp, the dog began to nose excitedly in the grass. Sud- 

 denly up popped half a dozen little brown cannon-balls, quail I thought, but 

 when they alighted in some cypress saplings I saw at once they were young 



74564— 32 23 



