ESSEX SOCIETY. 101 



She quits reluctantly ; when off, she feeds and drinks eagerly ; 

 she runs about quickly, pecking the green grass, and if she can 

 find any loose dry dirt, she settles herself in it, flopping the 

 dirt rapidly with her wings over her body, and then hastens 

 back to her nest. This adhesiveness to her eggs grows stronger 

 as the time of hatching approaches. She should then be dis- 

 turbed but seldom. Four weeks is the usual term of her in- 

 cubation, but it is sometimes protracted a day or two longer. 

 It happens not unfrequently that turkeys, like some hens of the 

 common fowls, do not incline to sit. When this is the case, 

 they continue to lay litter after litter during the season, as 

 do often the turkeys that have hatched, after their broods 

 have attained to some size. The eggs may be used in the fam- 

 ily. It is not advisable to have a hatch from a late litter of 

 eggs ; the chicks will not repay the cost and trouble of at- 

 tempting to rear them. Turkeys' eggs may be placed under 

 common hens, and hatched with success, if no more are used 

 for this purpose than can be fully covered. This is a conven- 

 ient arrangement in the spring, in order to enlarge other 

 broods. 



As soon as the chicks break the shell, it may be known by a 

 peculiarly soft and tremulous sound uttered by the mother, as 

 if recognizing the new-born brood, and expressing the anxious 

 sensations that now throb in her bosom. I know of no sound 

 more touching and plaintive ; a sound which she never makes 

 till this epoch in her existence. As they are hatched, it is well 

 to remove the young chicks to the house, and to clear the nest 

 of shells. But the chicks should be returned to the mother at 

 night, or before, the natural warmth of her body being of 

 more help to them than any artificial substitute. Sometimes a 

 chick, in consequence of the pellicle which lines the interior of 

 the shell adhering to it, is unable to free itself. Gentle means 

 may be used to separate them, but care is necessary in the 

 operation, or it may prove disastrous. A turkey will almost 

 always hatch out the larger proportion of the eggs on which 

 she has sat, and not unfrequently the whole of them. I have 

 known instances, when, on removing the old one for the first 

 time after hatching, the entire brood presented themselves, as 



