THE TURKEY. 163 



or four days old, they will watch each fly that alights 

 on a neighboring flower, fix it with mesmeric intensity, 

 and by slow approach often succeed in their final rush. 

 But in the best position you can station them, forget 

 them not for one hour in the day. If you do, the little 

 turkeys will for a time loudly yelp, 



" O then remember me," 



in notes less melodious than those of aprima donna, 

 and then they will be sulky and silent. When you 

 at length bring their delayed meal, some will eat, 

 some will not. Those that will not, can only be saved 

 by a method at all other times unjustifiable; namely, by 

 cramming; but it must be done most gently. The soft 

 crumb of bread rolled into miniature sausages should be 

 introduced till their crops are full. For drink, many 

 would give wine. I advise milk. The bird wants 

 material, not stimulant. It has been actually wire- 

 drawn. It has grown all the hours you have neglected 

 it, without anything to grow from. Like a young plant 

 in the fine spring season, it will and must grow ; but it 

 has no roots in the fertile earth to obtain incessant 

 nourishment. The roots which supply its growth are in 

 its stomach, which it is your office to replenish. " Pre- 

 vention is better than cure." Such a case ought never 

 to occur in a well-cared-for poultry pard. 



The time when the turkey hen may be allowed full 

 liberty with her brood, depends so much on season, 

 situation, &c., that it must be left to the exercise of the 

 keeper's judgment. Some, whose opinion is worthy of 

 attention, think that if the young are thriving, the 

 sooner the old ones are out with them the better, after 

 the first ten days or so. A safer rule may be fixed at 

 the season called "shooting the red," a "disease," as 

 some compilers are pleased to term it; being about as 

 much a disease as when the eldest son of the turkey's 

 master and mistress shoots his beard. When young 

 turkeys approach the size of a partridge, or before, the 

 granular fleshy excrescences on the head and neck begin 

 to appear ; soon after, the whole plumage, particularly 

 the tail feathers, start into rapid growth, and the " dis- 



