PECULIARITIES IN PAIRING. 1 89 



fierce conflict, by seeing them move alternately back- 

 wards and forwards, as either had obtained a better 

 hold, their wings drooping, their tails partly raised, 

 their body feathers ruffled, and their heads covered 

 with blood. If, as they thus struggle and gasp for 

 breath, one of them should lose his hold, his chance 

 is over; for the other, still holding fast, hits him 

 violently with spurs and wings, and in a few minutes 

 brings him to the ground. The moment he is dead 

 the conqueror treads him under foot ; but, what is 

 strange, not with hatred, but with all the motions 

 which he employs in caressing the female*." 



When the male and female turkey meet, the cere- 

 monies of strutting and opening the wings are car- 

 ried on by both parties, with the same pomp of 

 movement that used to distinguish the stately minuets 

 of the old Courts of St. James's and Versailles. The 

 match being at length agreed upon, the attachment 

 appears to continue during the season, though the 

 cock is by no means constant to his mate, and does 

 not hesitate, should opportunity offer, to bestow his 

 attentions on others. But when the above preli- 

 minaries have been settled, the hens follow their 

 favourite cock, roosting on the same tree, or, at least, 

 in its immediate vicinity, till the time of laying, when 

 the hen has recourse to every stratagem of cunning 

 to conceal her eggs from the male, who always 

 breaks them, in order, it is alleged, to prevent her 

 from withdrawing from his society, by attending 

 to the duties of incubation. At this period the hens 

 shun the cocks during the greater part of the day, 

 the latter becoming clumsy and listless, meeting each 

 other without exhibiting any rivalry, and ceasing to 

 gobble or strut as they had previously done. 



" Turkey-cocks, when at roost," says Audubon, 

 " sometimes strut and gobble ; but I have more 

 * Ornithol. Biogr. p. 4. 



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