6 TURKEY CULTURE. 



the most secluded spots along the mountain side. It 

 roams with its young now in the wheat stubble, through 

 the growing corn, and over the mown meadows and short- 

 cropped pasture land, while its wild sister scratches among 

 the leaves of the distant chestnut ridge, or gleans among 

 the open oak glades for food. But although the first ex- 

 plorers of this continent found the turkey domesticated by 

 some of the Indian tribes, yet to this day many of the 

 Wild traits show plainly in the common turkeys of the 

 farm. And these latter probably have had no infusion of 

 Wild blood for a hundred years, or more in many instances. 

 Wild turkeys in their native haunts are remarkably alert, 

 cautious, and apparently possessed of a large share of rea- 

 soning powers. It is something wonderful, the manner in 

 which they elude the oldest and most experienced hunters. 

 My grandfather said that the whole countryside of gun- 

 ners were out on the watch for a renowned albino gobbler 

 that ranged the hills along the Allegheny river, in his 

 young days, and although the spotless-white bird was fre- 

 quently seen, on a bright morning or evening, flying from 

 one hilltop to another, yet it was two or three years be- 

 fore he at last fell before the unerring aim of one of my 

 grand uncles. And it was a source of much chagrin to my 

 youngest brother, then a lad, not to be able to locate Min- 

 nehaha's nest the first season we had her. She was a full 

 Wild hen, one year old, obtained from the mountains in 

 central Pennsylvania, and was the beginning of our efforts 

 at crossing Wild and Bronze turkeys, to improve the plum- 

 age and hardiness of the latter. But watch and trail hei 

 as he might, and with all the casual assistance a half- 

 dozen brothers and sisters could give him, our turkey-hunt- 

 ing expert could not find the Wild hen's nest until after 

 the poults were hatched and away. This, too, in a place 

 where the woods were in small and isolated tracts. Early 

 in the spring the largest and strongest gobbler drives off 

 the weaker ones, and assumes a royal charge of the flock 



