ESSEX SOCIETY. 99 



ate him entirely from them. The hen turkey is very shy in 

 selecting her nest, and is sometimes so particular as to be a 

 number of days in securing a place to her fancy. In this she 

 is probably governed by an instinct, to provide a safe place for 

 her eggs and her young. The first intimation, after mating, of 

 her disposition to lay, is by her stealing away from her com- 

 panions, going here and therewith head down, as if meditating 

 upon the task before her. If closely watched, she will be most 

 likely to give up her project for the present. Even after she 

 has begun to lay, she must be followed only at a distance. A 

 better way to find the nest, if out of doors, is to observe the 

 direction in which she returns from it. This very season, one 

 of my turkeys that was laying a second litter in a neighboring 

 thicket, was watched a number of hours on two successive 

 mornings, and yet she gained her nest the first morning in se- 

 cresy ; and on the second, as if fully apprehending the system 

 of espionage established over her motions, she wandered around 

 and through the thicket, and at length returned home and drop- 

 ped her egg on the open grass plat in front of the house. 



If left to her own choice, the turkey will usually make her 

 nest out of doors, at the side of walls, under a bush, in long 

 grass, or in a thicket. Although so fastidious in the site of her 

 nest, she is not at all particular as to the materials of which it 

 is composed, and is as well contented with the bare ground as 

 with a bed of leaves. After a place is selected, it is not always 

 the first day or the second, that it is made the depository of the 

 first egg. She seems intent rather on adapting herself to it 

 and endeavoring, like the boy in the new school house, " to 

 get the hang of it." The number of eggs which a turkey 

 will lay in the spring, varies from fifteen to twenty-five. They 

 should be gathered daily, (no nest egg is necessary,) or as often 

 as they are laid, and carefully kept in a cool place. If left out 

 over night they may be chilled or stolen. But to guard against 

 such accidents, nature teaches the turkey, silly bird as we some- 

 times call her, just what to do, by covering them carefully with 

 a few leaves or spears of dead grass. To be sure she does this 

 in warm weather as well as cold, but the covering serves equal- 

 ly in both to screen them from observation. 



