RAISING TURKEYS. 201 



law of nature, which decrees that only the fittest should 

 live, and in the lower animal world these are necessarily 

 chosen for their physical qualities. 



The battles between the males are often waged with 

 such desperate valor that more than one combatant is 

 sent to join the great majority, as they deliver very heavy 

 blows at each other's heads, and do not give up a contest 

 until they are dear], or so thoroughly exhausted as to be 

 scarcely able to move. 



When one has killed another, he is said sometimes to 

 caress the dead bird in an apparently affectionate manner, 

 as if it were very sorry to have been compelled to do such 

 a deed, but could not help it, owing to the force of cir- 

 cumstances; yet I have seen the winner in a tournament 

 in such a rage that it not only killed its rival, but pecked 

 out its eyes after it was dead. When the victors have 

 won their brides, they keep together until the latter com- 

 mence laying, and then separate, for the males would 

 destroy the eggs if they could, and the hens, knowing 

 this, carefully screen them. The males are often fol 

 lowed by more than one hen; but they are not so polyg- 

 amous as their domestic congeners, as I never heard or 

 a gobbler having more than two or three females under 

 his protection. The adult gobblers drive the young 

 males away during the erotic season, and will not even 

 permit them to gobble if they can help it; so that th& 

 latter are obliged to keep by themselves, generally in 

 parties of from six to ten, unless some of the veterans 

 are killed, and then they occupy the vacated places, ac- 

 cording to the order of their prowess. 



Some aged males may also be found wandering through 

 the woods in parties of two, three, four or five, but they 

 seldom mingle with the flocks, owing, apparently, to ap' 

 proaching old age. They are exceedingly shy and vigilant, 

 and so wild that they fly immediately from an imagimiry 

 danger created by their own suspicious nature. They 



