42 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



from the house, and two miles from the town of Greens- 

 boro. The wild turkey hen had hatched her brood some- 

 where in this field, where she would remain until fall, 

 when she would take her young to the timbered land on 

 the creek bottoms, two or three miles distant. I raised this 

 young turkey. It proved to be a hen, was very gentle, 

 feeding from my hand, and manifesting, after it was 

 grown, none of the wild instincts of this wildest of birds. 



"Another attempt at rearing and domesticating the 

 wild turkey was made with equal success. This time, 

 however, the eggs were hatched, and the young raised 

 by a barnyard hen. I was out one day shooting squirrels, 

 when, in a somewhat frequented spot, and where I should 

 never have thought to find the nest of a wild turkey, a 

 hen rose almost under my feet, and ran off through the 

 woods. Examining the spot that she had just left I dis- 

 covered her nest in the leaves not three feet from where 

 I was standing. It contained ten eggs, in shape and size 

 not differing from those of the tame turkey. There was 

 no undergrowth in the woods around the nest; but a few 

 bushes and briers grew over it. As I looked at the eggs 

 the idea suddenly suggested itself that I might set these 

 eggs under a domestic hen, and raise the young. I took 

 the eggs from the nest, carried them home carefully, and, 

 incubation having already advanced, they were hatched 

 in about ten days, under a barnyard hen. 



"To prevent the young turkeys from running away 

 and being lost — for they are very wild when first hatched 

 — I had an inclosure (of boards) about two feet high 

 and twenty feet square. In the center of this, the hen 

 was confined in a coop. The inclosed space gave the 

 young turkeys room to exercise, and also prevented their 

 escape, till they had lost their natural wildness, and had 

 become gentle enough to feed from the hand, or to allow 

 themselves to be handled without alarm. They were sup- 

 plied chiefly with animal food in the form of curds, the 

 whey having been pressed from milk after coagulation. 

 They grew and thrived on this diet. Out of nine that 

 were hatched, eight lived to be grown, one dying when 

 about a month old, from a wound inflicted by the spur 



