MELEAaRID^E — THE TURKEYS. 409 



Turkeys are hunted in various ways and by different expedients to facili- 

 tate their destruction. In the spring they are attracted by drawing the air, in 

 a peculiar manner, through one of the second joint-bones of a wing. The 

 sound thus produced resembles the voice of the female, on hearing which 

 the male comes up and is shot. The cry of the Barred Owl is also imitated 

 at night where Turkeys are at roost, who betray tlie place by their rolling 

 gobble, uttered when alarmed. One of the most common methods of captur- 

 ing Wild Turkeys is by means of a trap known as a Turkey-pen. A cov- 

 ered enclosure is made, constructed of trees, about four feet high and of vari- 

 ous sizes, closed everywhere except at one end, where a small opening is left 

 through which a small trench is dug, sloping very gradually at both ends, 

 into and from the pen. The portion nearest the enclosure is covered. This 

 passage-way, the interior of the pen, and the vicinity of the opening, to 

 some distance into the forest, are strewn with corn. The Turkeys, attracted 

 by the corn, follow it into the pen, and when they wish to leave endeavor 

 to get out by the sides, but have not intelligence enough to escape by the 

 opening through which they entered. In this manner they are sometimes 

 entrapped in great numbers. 



In unsettled parts of the country. Wild Turkeys are often known to 

 associate with tame ones, sometimes to fight with them and to drive them 

 from their food. 



Mr. Audubon supposed our common tame Turkey to have originated in 

 these birds, yet in his accounts of the habits of the latter he mentions sev- 

 eral indications of divergence. A Wild Turkey which he had reared almost 

 from the shell, and which had become very tame, would never roost with the 

 domesticated birds, but always betook itself at night to the roof of the house, 

 where it remained until dawn. 



Mr. Bachman states that Wild Turkeys kej)t in confinement, in a condi- 

 tion of partial domestication, but separate from the domestic birds, lose the 

 brilliancy of their plumage in the third generation, become of a pale brown, 

 and have here and there an intermixture of white feathers. On the other 

 hand. Major Leconte states, most positively, that the Wild Turkey has never 

 been known to become so nearly domesticated as to propagate its race in 

 confinement, notwithstanding the many efforts made to accomplish this re- 

 sult. This statement is, however, negative, and must be taken with reserva- 

 tion. In 1852, in Mr. Barnum's grounds, near Niagara Falls, I saw Wild 

 Turkeys with broods of young birds, though how far successful this attempt 

 proved in the sequel I do not know, and Dr. Bachman's statement seems to 

 be quite positive evidence that they can be thus reared. 



Mr. Audubon describes the eggs of the Wild Turkey as measuring 2.87 

 inches in length and 2.00 in breadth, and rather pointed at one end ; their 

 ground-color is given as of a uniform pale-yellowish tint, marked all over 

 with pale rusty-brown spots. 



Specimens in my collection vary from 2.55 to 2.35 inches in length, and 



VOL. in. 52 



