202 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



strut and gobble occasionally, but not near so much as 

 their younger kindred. Barren hens, which also keep 

 by themselves, are almost as demonstrative in displaying 

 their vocal powers, airs, and feathers as the old males, 

 whereas they are exceedingly coy and unpretentious when 

 fertile. When the season is over, the males keep by them- 

 selves in small bachelor parties; but, instead of being ex- 

 ceedingly noisy as they were in the early part of the 

 mating period, they become almost silent. Yet they 

 sometimes strut and gobble on their roosts, though, as 

 a general rule, they do not, and content themselves with 

 elevating and lowering the tail feathers and uttering a 

 puffing sound. They keep at this exercise for hours at 

 a time on moonlight nights without rising from their 

 perch, and sometimes continue it until daylight. 



When the hen is ready to lay, she scratches out a slight 

 hollow in a thicket, a cane brake, beside a prostrate tree, 

 in tall grass or weeds, or in a grain field, and lines it 

 rudely with grass or leaves, and then deposits her eggs 

 in it. These, which vary in number from ten to twenty, 

 are smaller and more elongated than those of the domestic 

 turkey, and are of a dull cream or a dirty white color, 

 sprinkled with brownish-red spots. Audubon says that 

 several hens may lay their eggs in one nest, and hatch 

 them and raise the broods together. He found three 

 hens sitting on forty-two eggs in a single nest, and one 

 was always present to protect them. 



If the eggs are not destroyed, only one brood is raised 

 in a year; but if they are, the female calls loudly for a 

 male, and when she is rejoined by one, both keep com- 

 pany until she is ready to commence laying again, when 

 she deserts him or drives him away. She builds her 

 nest in the most secluded spot she can find, and covers 

 it carefully with leaves or grass whenever she leaves it. 



