284 TURKEYS. 



for if they venture to approach their seniors, they are sure of 

 being severely punished ; and many are killed on the spot by 

 repeated blows on the skull 



There can be no doubt that our European stocks of tame 

 Turkeys are descendants of these wild Americans ; and yet it 

 is remarkable that, train and keep them as long as you please, 

 the wild Turkey will still retain its original habits ; and it is 

 not improbable that, if left to themselves, the descendants of 

 our tame ones would in time resume the wild habits of their 

 forefathers, like those which we have above mentioned, 

 abounding near the Black Sea. 



We are not, indeed, without instances of wild Turkeys at 

 this day, in our own country, and a curious anecdote has 

 reached us of a friendship taking place between a flock of 

 these birds and a Partridge. It occurred at Tyninghame, in 

 Scotland, where there is a breed of Turkeys which never enter 

 into the poultry-house or yard, but roost in the trees, and live 

 chiefly on beech-mast, and anything else they can pick up, 

 though they are tame enough to come about the house to be 

 fed in the time of frost and snow. About eight or ten years 

 ago, a cock Partridge, full grown, suddenly joined himself to 

 the flock of these Turkeys, and remained with them constantly 

 during the whole summer, autumn, and winter ; at night he 

 slept under the trees in which they roosted ; in the day he 

 fed with them, and was not the least frightened 'or disturbed 

 by people walking among them. He took great liberties with 

 the old Turkey-cock ; when he saw him going to pick up a 

 worm or any seed, he used to run under him between his legs, 

 and snatch it out of his mouth, the Turkey-cock never resenting 

 the indignity. Early in the spring he left them, as it was 

 supposed, to find himself a mate for the pairing season. But, 

 in the beginning of autumn, he rejoined his old friends, and 

 continued with them, as formerly, until the next pairing time, 

 when he again disappeared, but returned no more, having 

 probably been killed.* 



Male birds of the gallinaceous or poultry tribe, which 

 associate with a plurality of females, are in general less 

 * Edin. Phil. Jour., No. viii. 



