The Audubon Societies 



477 



ation, and will not flush easily. 1 once 

 stood for fully five minutes within twenty 

 inches of a Turkey-hen on her nest while 

 I was watching a Pileated Woodpecker. 

 Happening to glance down into a thicket 

 of greenbriers, I spied the beady eye of the 

 hen; and away she slid as quietly as a 

 snake, disclosing twelve beautiful eggs. I 



Turkey hens together in the Big Cypress 

 countr\^ a few daj's after the hunting 

 season closed. They were feeding along 

 a cypress head in a "burn," and were 

 strung out one behind the other; and the 

 bright morning sun glistening on their 

 plumage made a picture I shall long re- 

 member. On the same daj' I saw a drove 



NEST AND EGGS OF THE FLORIDA WILD TURKEY 



have found sets of sixteen eggs, but nine 

 or ten is the usual number, and, for a young 

 hen, six and seven is the size of the set. 

 Down in the Everglade region the Turkey 

 usually builds in a thick clump of saw- 

 palmetto bushes, and makes her nest of 

 dry grass and leaves; and I found them on 

 the ground under the top of a fallen pine 

 when there was a good thicket of grass 

 around it. I once saw twentj'-three 



of nine Turkey-gobblers feeding in a sim- 

 ilar place further along. Such flocks as 

 this are not unusual when the Turkey is 

 plentiful. I camped at a man's homestead 

 down on the edge of the Okaloacoochee 

 Slough for a few days once in late March; 

 and ever}- morning and evening nine hens 

 came into his cultivated field to feed, and 

 did not seem to mind us if we did not go 

 too close to them. 



