214 WILD TURKEY. 



A gentleman, residing in Westchester county, New York, a few ye&m 

 since procured a young female Wild Turkey, in order to make the ex- 

 periment of crossing the breed ; but, owing to some circumstance, it did 

 not succeed, and in the ensuing spring this female disappeared. In 

 the following autumn she returned, followed by a large brood ; these 

 were quite shy, but, by a little management, they were secured in a coop, 

 and the mother allowed her liberty : she remained on the farm until the 

 succeeding spring, ■when she again disappeared, and returned in autumn 

 with another brood. This course she has repeated for several successive 

 years. 



Eggs of the Wild Turkey have been frequently taken from their nests 

 and hatched under the tame hen ; the young preserve a portion of their 

 uncivilized nature, and exhibit some knowledge of the difference between 

 themselves and their foster-mother, roosting apart from the tame ones, 

 and in other respects showing the force of hereditary disposition. The 

 domesticated young, reared from the eggs of the Wild Turkey, are often 

 employed as decoy-birds to those in a state of nature. Mr. William 

 Bloom, of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, caught five or six Wild Turkeys, 

 when quite chickens, and succeeded in rearing them. Although suffi- 

 ciently tame to feed with his Tame Turkeys, and generally associate 

 with them, yet they always retained some of their original propensities, 

 roosting by themselves, and higher than the tame birds, generally on 

 the top of some tree, or of the house. They were also more readily 

 alarmed ; on the approach of a dog they would fly off, and seek safety 

 in the nearest woods. On an occasion of this kind, one of them flew 

 across the Susquehanna, and the owner was apprehensive of losing it ; 

 in order to recover it, he sent a boy with a Tame Turkey, which was 

 released at the place where the fugitive had alighted. This plan was 

 successful ; they soon joined company, and the tame bird induced his 

 companion to return home. Mr. Bloom remarked, that the Wild 

 Turkey will thrive more, and keep in better condition, than the Tame, 

 on the same quantity of food. 



Besides the above-mentioned half breed, some domesticated Turkeys, 

 of a very superior metallic tint, are sold in the Philadelphia and New 

 York markets as wild ones. Many of these require a practised eye 

 to distinguish their true character, but they are always rather less 

 brilliant, and those I examined had a broad whitish band at the tip of 

 the tail coverts, and another at the tip of the tail itself, which instantly 

 betrayed their origin, the wild ones being entirely destitute of the 

 former, and the band on the tip of the tail being neither so wide nor so 

 pure. 



In the following description we give the generic as well as the specific 

 characters of the Wild Turkey, in order to make it complete. 



The male Wild Turkey, when full grown, is nearly four foot in length, 



