THE TURKEY, 91 



fruit to any other nourishment ; their more 

 general predilection, however, is for the acorn, 

 on which they rapidly fatten. When an un- 

 usually profuse crop of acorns is produced in 

 a particular section of country, great numbers 

 of turkeys are enticed from their ordinary 

 haunts in the surrounding districts. About 

 the beginning of October, -while the mast still 

 remains on the trees, they assemble in flocks, 

 and direct their course to the rich bottom- 

 lands. At this season they are observed in 

 great numbers on the Ohio and Mississippi. 

 The time of this irruption is known to the 

 Indians by the name of the turkey-month. 



" The males, usually termed gobblers, asso- 

 ciate in parties numbering from ten to a hun- 

 dred, and seek their food apart from the 

 females, whilst the latter either move about 

 singly with their young, then nearly two- 

 thirds grown, or in company with other 

 females, and their families, form troops some- 

 times consisting of seventy or eighty indi- 

 viduals, all of whom are intent on avoiding 

 the old males, who, whenever opportunity 

 offers, attack and destroy the young by repeated 

 blows on the skull. All parties, however, 

 travel in the same direction, and on foot, 



