WILD TURKEYS COMPETING FOR A MATE 
These two males have been attracted by a photographer, who is hidden in the brush and 
imitating, with a caller, the love note of the turkey hen. 
The males stalk up and down, 
in such a case, and go through an elaborate performance for the purpose of impressing 
the hen. 
States, the result has been that the 
domesticated turkeys of Europe differ 
somewhat from those of the United 
States. During the last century the 
various forms have been crossed and 
intercrossed in the United States, so 
that the domestic flocks of bronze 
turkeys mostly contain recent infusions 
of wild-turkey blood, while the wild 
flocks have a great deal of domestic 
blood. On this point we read: 
“In countries thickly settled, as in 
the one where I now write, there is a 
great variety of wild turkeys scattered 
about in the woods of the small creeks 
and hills. Many hybrid wild turkeys 
are killed here every year. The cause 
of this is: every old gobbler that dares 
to open its mouth in the spring is 
within hearing of farmers, Negroes, 
and others, and is a marked bird. It 
is given no rest until it is killed; hence 
there are few or no wild turkeys to take 
The one at the left is just beginning the ‘“‘strut,’’ which is described in the text. 
Photograph from ‘‘The Wild Turkey and Its Hunting.” 
(Fig. 17.) 
care of the hens, which then visit the 
domestic gobbler about the farmyards. 
Hence this crossing with the wild one 
is responsible for a great variety of 
plumages. 
“T once saw a flock of hybrids while 
hunting squirrels in Pelahatchie swamp, 
Mississippi, as I sat at the root of a tree 
eating lunch, about 1 o’clock, with gun 
across my lap, as I never wish to be 
caught out of reach of my gun. Sud- 
denly I heard a noise in the leaves, and 
on looking in that direction I saw a 
considerable flock of turkeys coming 
directly toward me in a lively man- 
ner, eagerly searching for food. The 
moment these birds came in sight I 
saw they had white tips to their tails, 
but they had the form and action of 
the wild turkey, and it at once occurred 
to me that they were a lot of mixed 
breeds, half wild, half tame, with the 
freedom of the former. I noticed also 
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