WILD LIFE IN THE FARM-YARD 65 



I never knew a tame mother turkey to doc- 

 tor her infants for vermin. But the wild hen 

 will. The woods are full of ticks and detestable 

 vermin as deadly as cold rains. When her brood 

 begins to lag and pine, the wild mother knows, 

 and leading them to some old ant-hill, she gives 

 them a sousing dust-bath. The vermin hate the 

 odor of the ant-scented dust, and after a series of 

 these baths disappear. 



This is wise ; and if this report be true, then the 

 wild turkey is as wise and far-seeing a mother as 

 the woods contain. One observer even tells of 

 three hens that stole off together and fixed up a 

 nest between themselves. Each put in her eggs 

 forty-two in all and each took turns guarding, 

 so that the nest was never left alone. 



What special enemy caused this unique part- 

 nership the naturalist does not say. The three 

 mothers built together, brooded together, and to- 

 gether guarded the nest. But how did those 

 three mothers divide the babies? 



I said I wanted you to visit a farm where there 

 are turkeys. And you will have to if you would 

 see the turkey at home. For, though I have trav- 

 eled through the South, and been in the swamps 

 and river "bottoms" there all along the Savan- 



