248 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



profit, because the young are much more diffi- of a woman who crosses the village every morn- 

 cult to bring up than chickens. For hundreds ing with her flock on her way to the open fields, 

 of years in France (a country well adapted to On her return at night each bird knows where 

 poultry) the raising of turkeys has been a great it belongs and goes there, never making a mis- 

 industrv, and the finest specimens are found take. All the villagers do not need a male bird. 



Turkeys in a Field 



there. The Sohg-itc turkey is unsurpassed. It a few being sufficient for a flock. It is a real 

 is a superb animal of a brilliant black color, pleasure to see these creatures marching 

 though some (but these are usually small) are proudly along, with wings deployed and feathers 



white or steel-blue. A Sologne turkey which 

 attained the enormous weight of forty-five 

 pounds carried off the highest honors at all 

 the shows to which he was sent. At Madrid, 

 in 1902, he even had the honor of attracting the 

 attention of the young king and his mother, the 

 queen regent. During the return journey this 



raised. They advance with the gravity of a 

 ruler in the midst 

 of his subjects. 



The white tur- 

 key is likewise a 

 superb animal 



Young Turkeys 



turkey took cold, and when he had scarcely re- 

 covered he was killed by a scoundrel, who paid 

 for his crime by six months' imprisonment. 



There are villages in France where turkeys 

 are kept at the public expense, under the care 



breed is easily distinguished from the Sologne. 

 The latter is larger and attains a weight of from 

 twenty-five to thirty pounds, while the former 

 weighs only from eighteen to twenty. Their 

 flesh is excellent and much in demand. In 



