60 



WILD Tdr.KKY. 



THE FEMALE WILD TURKEY. 



dried leaves. In this receptacle the eggs are deposited, sometimes 

 to the number of twenty, but more usually from nine to fifteen. 

 They are whitish, spotted with reddish-brown, like those of the 

 domestic bird. Their manner of building, number of eggs, period 

 of incubation, &c., appear to correspond throughout the Union, as 

 I have received exactly similar accounts from the northern limits 

 of the turkey range, to the most southern regions of Florida, 

 Louisiana, and the wilds of Missouri. The female always ap- 

 proaches her nest with great caution, vary ing her course so as rarely 

 to reach it twice by the same route, and on leaving her charge, 

 she is very careful to cover the whole with dry leaves, with which 

 she conceals it so artfully as to make it extremely difficult, even 

 for one that has watched her movements, to indicate the exact 

 spot ; hence few nests are found, and these are generally discovered 

 by fortuitously starting the female from them, or by the appearance 

 of broken shells scattered around, by some cunning lynx, fox, or 

 crow. When laying or sitting, the turkey hen is not readily driven 



