264 THE TURKEY 



appearance of her mate. In a tame state these birds begin to 

 breed at the end of March or beginning of April. The eggs are 

 laid in a gradual manner, one egg being deposited every two days, 

 and the entire number reaching ten or twelve. The eggs are large, 

 resembling goose eggs in size, white with darker spots. Incubation 

 lasts from twenty -five to thirty days. The young birds are feathered 

 alike for the first two years, and in the third year the tail coverts 

 of the male begin to be developed and to assume their lustrous 

 appearance, when also the males begin to parade their attractions 

 before the eyes of their mates. The third year is the first in which 

 the young peahen produces eggs. 



Alexander the Great first brought the peacock into Europe, 

 and they were first seen in Rome at the end of the republic. Hor- 

 tensius, according to Pliny, was the first who made a table delicacy 

 of the peacock, this worthy orator presenting the dish at a feast 

 given to the College of Augurs. Vitellius and Heliogabalus intro- 

 duced dishes at their feasts composed of the brains and tongues of 

 peacocks, and in the Middle Ages in Europe peacocks were still 

 deemed meet dishes for the tables of the great. In modern times 

 the flesh of peacocks is accounted coarse and tough. 



The food consists of grain of various kinds, but in certain cases 

 the peacock will feed on a very miscellaneous diet. In large pleasure 

 grounds a few pea-fowls appear to great advantage, there being 

 little that requires cultivation, and when duly supplied with grain 

 or other food. But in vegetable grounds they are very destructive, 

 clearing out whole rows of recently sown peas, etc., with great 

 gusto, and thief -like are extremely crafty in selecting times for 

 committing their depredations. They destroy various ground 

 pests. 



TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo). The turkey appears to have 

 come originally from America, and is now a well-known denizen 

 of our farmyards. Where given plenty of grass-run turkeys are 

 not so given to invade gardens as fowls, though when they do the 

 havoc they commit is appalling. In a grass orchard a brood of 

 young turkeys are valuable in destroying ground pests, also aerial, 

 that come within reach, and no harm is done provided the mother 

 be shifted betimes, and not left in one place till the grass be ruined : 

 besides, it is necessary that the coop be moved a short distance 

 every day for the health of the young turkeys, and also that they 

 may "till" and clear of pests the area adequate to their re- 

 quirements without inflicting damage. In many rearing-places 

 the coops, particularly on poultry-rearing grounds, are so closely 

 disposed and so infrequently moved, that the grass is practically 

 destroyed in places, and the whole left so patchy and uneven and 

 withal so foul that only breaking up and relaying is feasible. To 

 " sweeten " the ground after fowl-rearing a dressing of lime is 

 usually applied, with the result of a great evolution of ammonia 



