222 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



his predecessor. The turkeys seemed to regard this 

 as great fun, for as soon as one would retipe, all 

 would commence gobbling together, as if chaffing the 

 coward, immediately after which all would bristle up 

 their feathers and commence a mimic attack upon each 

 other. Half-an-hour I spent watching the strange 

 vagaries of these noble birds, till I considered I 

 had learned all their performance by heart, or wit- 

 nessed all the tricks that the mountebanks intended 

 putting into practice ; so, waiting my chance when the 

 turkeys were aligned, I killed two with my left barrel 

 and one with my right. Pussy's release now called for 

 my attention ; with the aid of my knife in a moment 

 she was free, but true to her tiger instincts, the first 

 use she made of her liberty was to fly upon one of the 

 dead birds, and attempt to rend it in pieces with teeth 

 and claw. In fact, five minutes of her vindictive 

 wrath would have soon mutilated my game to such an 

 extent as to render it unfit for human food. I after- 

 wards made trial of this discovery, but never with the 

 same success, although it invariably afforded me a 

 shot. 



If domestic turkeys are kept where wild ones 

 abound, they constantly associate together, although 

 apparently always engaged in quarrelling. This may 

 be caused through jealousy, for report states that the 

 tame hen birds much prefer the attentions of the 

 wild cocks, and that if they are not carefully watched 

 they will stray off with their paramour, regardless 

 of the ties that connect them to their legitimate pro- 

 tector. 



A half-bred Frenchman residing on the banks of 

 the Embaras told me that whenever he wanted a wild 



