168 ESSAY ON REARING TURKEYS. 



and have begun to sit. His attentions to them chn-ing this 

 latter period often become so officious and annoying, that it is 

 best to separate him entirely from them. TJie 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 yonug. The first intimation, after 

 mating, of her disposition to lay, is by her stealing away from 

 her companions, going here and there with head down, as if 

 meditating upon the task before her. If closely watched, she 

 will be most likely to give up the project for the present. Ev- 

 en 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 reborns 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 secresy ; and on the second, as if fully apprehend- 

 ing the system of espionage established over her motions, she 

 wandered around and through the thicket, and at length re- 

 turned home and dropt 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 al- 

 ways the first day or the second, that it is made the deposito- 

 ry of the first egg. She seems intent rather on adapting her- 

 self 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 sometimes call her— just what to do, by covering 



