194 



THE WILD TURKEY. 



they are frequently attacked by the lynxes, who spring upon 



them, knocking them over with their paws. 



The wild turkey wanders 

 to a great distance from the 

 place of its birth. " About 

 the beginning of October the 

 male birds assemble in flocks/' 

 says Audubon, '' and move 

 towards the rich bottom-lands 

 of the Ohio and Mississippi. 

 The females advance singly, 

 each with its brood of young, 

 then about two-thirds grown, 

 or in union with other 

 families, forming parties often 

 amounting to seventy or 

 eighty individuals — shunning 

 the old cocks, who, when the 

 young birds have attained 

 this size, will fight with, and 

 often destroy them by re- 

 peated blows on the head. 

 When they come upon a river, 

 they betake themselves to 

 the highest eminence, and often 

 remain there a whole day ; for 

 the purpose of consultation, it 

 would seem, the males gobbl- 

 HUNTiNG WILD TURKEYS. jjjg^ calllug, aud makiug much 



ado, — strutting about as if to raise their courage to a pitch 



befitting the emergency. At length, when all around is quiet, 



