UPLAND GAME BIRDS 125 
pomp and vanity of the strutting gobbler ; indeed, in his 
actions he might pass for a turkey bantam, but he has 
one marked peculiarity. It is his habit to perch in some 
thick-growing tree, and by filling the sacs upon his neck 
with air and abruptly expelling it to produce a low boom- 
ing whistle, which has an extraordinary carrying and 
ventriloquial power. This booming, or ‘booing’ as 
some Westerners term it, seldom fails to puzzle sorely a 
tenderfoot, the baffling feature of it being that it does 
not appear to gain volume or distinctness when the bird 
is closely approached.” ! 
In May or June, according to location, the wooing 
begins, and soon the mother is brooding on her eight 
buffy eggs in the shade of a fern tangle, near a log, or in 
a clump of manzanita. No part does the father take in 
the three weeks of patient incubation, but the mother 
can seldom be surprised away from the nest. [t would 
be far easier to discover the eggs were she not covering 
them, for so protective is her coloring that you may be 
looking directly at her and never suspect it, although at 
that very moment you are searching for a nest. Her 
food is all about her, — buds, berries, and insects. If 
she leaves the eggs, it is only to stretch her tired little 
legs and pick up a few dainties close by. But once the 
little mottled puff-balls are out of the shell and dry, 
away she goes, proud as a peacock, with them at her 
heels. And now the father is introduced to family cares, 
and he scratches for bugs, calling the young with impera- 
tive little chucks to come. He is the drill-master of the 
1 Upland Game Birds. 
