40 FRESH WOODS. 



wouldn't listen to a single-handed combat ; 

 so at it they went not by any means in a 

 helter-skelter sort of way, as one might have 

 expected from these hot-headed, hare-brained 

 birds. 



They marched straight up in single line, 

 the two chiefs at the head of their respective 

 columns, until they came within a yard of 

 each other, face to face ; then our gallant 

 leader gobbled something which sounded 

 like 



" . . . . Come on, MacdufF, 

 And cursed be he that first cries, ' Hold enough ! ' " 



And so they strutted, and swore, and spat 

 at each other, and the battle began, but 

 in a wary, deliberate fashion. I was amused 

 to see them bowing to each other, in 

 what seemed a polite, gentlemanly way, 

 but really they were only manoeuvring ; 

 it was curious to see their heads bobbing up 

 and down, and I wondered when they were 

 going to begin. But turkeys don't fight in a 

 vulgar way, with their whole bodies, beaks, 

 spurs, legs and wings, like " tame villatic 

 fowls." These fought on scientific principles, 

 and only with their beaks. I soon discovered 

 that their method was to try to get hold of 

 each other's lower jaw, and the moment one 

 opened his beak his opponent would dart at 



