No. 8. 



Turkeys. 



241 



wild specimens, birds like these are sought 

 to complete collections of stuffed birds. 



The demand for such large birds among: 

 the fowl-dealers, and the temptation to fat 

 them before they arrive at this stage, are so 

 great, that few farmers' wives can resist 

 sending their 18 or 20 lb. " stag"* to mar- 

 ket, while a young cock of the year, they 

 think, will answer every purpose next spring 

 as well. Some even deem it an extrava- 

 gance to keep a turkey-cock at all, if they 

 have not more than two hens, which they 

 would send on a visit of a day or two to a 

 neighbour who has a male bird. The time 

 when the hens require this change of air in 

 spring may be known by their lying down 

 on the ground, as if they were unwell, doing 

 so immediately again, if taken up and made 

 to walk on, which apparent languor is ac- 

 companied by a lack-a-daisical love-sick ex- 

 pression of countenance. Last Christmas 

 we ate or gave away all our turkeys — in- 

 cluding a magnificent stag, whose image 

 haunts us still — e.Kceptone hen. The above 

 mentioned plan was necessarily adopted, and 

 the result was from eleven eggs, eight 

 chicks so strong as almost to rear themselves. 



When the hen has once selected a spot 

 for her nest, she will continue to lay there 

 till the time of incubation, so that the eggs 

 may be brought home from day to day, there 

 being no need of a nest egg, as with the 

 common fowl. She will lay from 15 to 20 

 eggs, more or less. Her determination to 

 sit will be known by her constantly remain- 

 ing on the nest, though empty; and as it is 

 seldom in a position sufficiently secure 

 against the weather or pilferers, a nest 

 should be prepared for her by placing some 

 straw, with her eggs, on the floor of a con- 

 venient out-house. She should then be 

 brought home and gently and kindly placed 

 upon it. It is a most pleasing sight to wit- 

 ness the satisfaction with which the bird 

 takes her long-lost eggs, turning them about, 

 placing them with her bill in the most suit- 

 able positions, packing the straw tightly 

 around and under them, and finally sinking 

 upon them with the quiet joy of anticipated 

 maternity. 



Thirteen eggs are enough to give her; a 

 large hen might cover more; but a few 

 strong, well-hatched chicks, are better than 

 a large brood of weaklings, that have been 

 delayed in the shell, perhaps twelve hours 

 over the time, from insufficient warmth. At 

 the end of a week it is usual to add two or 

 three fowFs eggs, " to teach the young tur- 

 keys to peck." The plan is not a bad one ; 



* In Norfolk, turkey-cocks are called stags from their 



rnnrl vpar iinwnrdfi. 



second year upwards. 



the activity of the chickens does stir up 

 some emulation in their larger brethren; 

 the eggs take but little room in the nest; 

 and at the end of the summer you have two 

 or three very fine fowls, all the plumper for 

 the extra diet they have shared with the lit- 

 tle turkeys. 



Some ladies believe it necessary to turn 

 the eggs once a day; but the hen does that 

 herself many times a day. If the eggs are 

 marked and you notice their position when 

 she leaves the nest, you will never find them 

 arranged in the same order. A person who 

 obtained 99 chicks from 100 eggs, took the 

 great trouble to turn every egg every day 

 with her own hand, during the whole time 

 of incubation. The result appears favour- 

 able; but, in fact, only amounts to this, that 

 such officiousness did no harm with such a 

 good, patient, quiet creature as the sitting 

 turkey is, but it would probably have wor- 

 ried and annoyed any other bird into addling 

 her whole clutch. We will at once reject, 

 as utterly absurd and unnatural, all direc- 

 tions to immerse or " try" the eggs in a pail 

 of water, hot or cold. 



In four weeks the little birds will be 

 hatched ; and then, how are they to be rear- 

 ed 1 Some books tell you to plunge them in 

 cold water, to strengthen them : those that 

 survive will certainly be hardy birds.* Others 

 say, " make them swallow a whole pepper- 

 corn ;" which is as if we were to cram a 

 London pippin down the throat of a new- 

 born babe. Others, again, say, " give them 

 a little ale, beer or wine." We know un- 

 happily, that some mothers are wicked 



* Sir J. S. Sebright exposes the folly of endeavour- 

 ing to make young creatures robust by undue exposure 

 to cold aiul hardship, an experiment which some men 

 and women are cruel enough to try upon their own 

 oftspring. Air and exercise increase the strength of 

 any growing animal, but cold and hunger only dwarf 

 and weaken. We see robust children in extremely 

 poor families, not because they are poor, but because 

 if they were not robust, they would not be alive at 

 all. Sir John, in his "Treatise on improving the 

 Breeds of Domestic Animals," pp. 15, IG, says, "la 

 cold and barren countries no animals can live to the 

 age of maturity but those that have strong constitu- 

 tions; the weak and the unhealthy do not live to prop- 

 agate their infirmities, as is too often the case with 

 our domestic animals. To this I attribute the pecu- 

 liar hardiness of the horses, cattle, and sheep, bred 

 in mountainous countries, more than to their having 

 been inured to the severity of the climate ; for our do- 

 mestic animals do not become more hardy by being ex- 

 posed when young, to cold and hunger; animals so 

 treated, will not, when arrived at the age of maturity, 

 endure so much hrdship as those who have been better 

 kept in their infant state." 



