THE WILD TURKEY. 



I thought my picture would 

 appear in this number of BIRDS. 

 What would Thanksgiving be 

 without a Turkey, I'd like to 

 know. 



The editor says that I am a 

 bird of ex-traor-di-na-ry size 

 and beauty. That word is as 

 big as I am, but by spelling it, I 

 guess you will understand. 



I look as proud as a peacock, 

 don't I? Well, I am just as 

 proud. You ought to see me 

 strut, and hear me talk when 

 the hen-turkeys are around. 

 Why, sometimes when there is 

 a large troop of us in the woods 

 you can hear us gobble, gobble, 

 gobble, for many miles. We are 

 so fond of talking to each other. 



That is when we are about to 

 set up housekeeping, you think. 



Yes, in March and April. 

 After the nests are made, and 

 the little turkeys hatched out, 

 we big, handsome fellows go off 

 to ourselves. The hen-turkeys, 

 with their young broods, do the 

 same. 



Sometimes there are as many 

 as a hundred in our troop and 

 seventy or eighty in theirs. We 



travel on foot, picking up food 

 as we go, till we meet a man 

 with a gun, or come to a wide 

 river. 



Then we have to fly. 



In a flock? Oh, yes. We 

 choose some high place from 

 which to get a good start. 

 There we all stay, sometimes a 

 day or two, strutting about and 

 talking big. It is gobble, gobble 

 gobble, from morning till night. 

 Just like one of your conven- 

 tions, you know. After awhile 

 our leader gives the signal and 

 off we all fly to the opposite 

 shore. 



Did you ever see one of our 

 nests? No? Well, they are 

 not easily seen, though they are 

 made on the ground. You see, 

 we are cunning and build them 

 among tall, thick weeds and 

 tangled briars. 



I hope, if you ever come 

 across one, you will not touch it, 

 because my mate would never 

 return to it again, if you did. 



What do we eat? 



Berries, fruit and grasses, 

 beetles, tadpoles, frogs and 

 lizards. In fact anything we 

 consider good. 



183 



