242 



Turkeys. 



Vol. XII. 



enough to give their infants gin, and we 

 know the consequences. 



Give them nothing; do nothing to them ; 

 let them be in the nest under the shelter of 

 their mother's wings, at least eight or ten 

 hours; if hatched in the afternoon, till the 

 following morning. Then place her on the 

 grass, in the sun, under a roomy coop. If 

 the weather be fine she may be stationed 

 where you choose by a long piece of flannel 

 list tied round one leg, and fastened to a 

 stump or a stone. But the boarded coop 

 saves her ever- watchful anxiety from the 

 dread of enemies above and behind — the 

 carrion-crow, the hawk, the rat, the weasel; 

 and also protects herself — she will protect 

 her young — from the sudden showers of 

 summer. Offer at first a few crumbs of 

 bread; the little ones, for some hours, will 

 be in no hurry to eat; but when they do be- 

 gin, supply them constantly and abuiidantly 

 with chopped Ggg, shreds of meat and fat, 

 curd, boiled rice mixed with cress, lettuce, 

 and t!ie green of onions. Melted mutton 

 Euet poured over barley-meal, and cut up 

 when cold; also bullock's liver boiled and 

 minced, are excellent things. The quantity 

 consumed costs nothing; the attention to 

 supply it is everything. 



The young of ihe turkey afford a remark- 

 able instance of hereditary and transmitted 

 habits. From having been tended for many 

 generations with so much care, they appear 

 naturally to expect it almost as soon as they 

 are released from the shell. We are told 

 that young pointers, the descendants of well- 

 educated dogs, will point at the scent of 

 game without any previous training; and so 

 turkey chicks seem to w-ait for the attention 

 of man before they can have any experience 

 of the value or nature of those attentions. 

 Pood which they would refuse from a platter, 

 they will peck greedily from the palm of a 

 hand ; a crumb which would be disdained if 

 seen accidentally on the ground, will be rel- 

 ished from the tip of a finger. The proverb 

 that " the master's eye fattens the horse," is 

 applicable to them not in a metaphorical, 

 but in a literal sense; for they certainly 

 take their food with a better appetite if their 

 keeper stays to distribute it, and see them 

 eat it, than if he merely set it down and Icfl 

 them to help themselves. 



I believe this to be the case with more 

 domesticated animals than we are aware of, 

 and appears natural enough if we remember 

 how much more we enjoy a meal in the so- 

 ciety of those we love and respect, than if 

 we partook of it in indifferent or disagree- 

 able company. 



However, there can be no doubt that 

 young turkeys pampered and spoiled for 



; about three hundred generations, have at 

 length acquired an innate disposition to rely 

 on the care of man. Sir Humphrey Da\'y, 

 in his " Salamonia," believes that a like he- 

 reditary instinct is engendered even in fishes, 

 believing that the trout, &c., in unfiequent- 

 ed rivers, are more unsuspicious of artificial 

 flies than those in the streams of Great Brit- 

 ain. "This," he says, "may be fancy, yet 

 I have referred it to a kind of hereditary 

 disposition, which has been formed and trans- 

 mitted from their progenitors." 



At any rate, it is neither a dream nor a 

 guess with young turkey-chicks, to which we 

 will now return. A sitting of wild turkey's 

 eggs does not often fall into the hands of an 

 American game-keeper, if such a person 

 there be, but I am afraid he would find his 

 brood more shy and troublesome than the 

 shyest of partridges or pheasants. 



The turkeys, then, are hatched, and we 

 are rearing them. Abundant food for the 

 mother and her young, constant attention to 

 their v.ants, are the grand desiderata. An 

 open glade in a grove, with long grass, and 

 shrubs here and there, is the best possible 

 location. A great deal is said about clear 

 and fresh water for fljwls; but I have ob- 

 served that if lefl to their own choice, they 

 will be as content and healthy with the 

 rinsings of the scullery, or the muddiest 

 pool, as with the purest spring. The long 

 grass will afford them cover from the birds 

 of prey; the hen will herself drive off four- 

 footed enemies with great courage. I have 

 been amused with the fury with which a 

 mother turkey has pursued a squirrel, till it 

 took refuge in the branches overhead ; what 

 instinctive fear urged her I know not. In- 

 sects, too, will abound in such a situation. 

 When the little creatures are three or four 

 days old, they will watch each fly that 

 alights on a neighbouring 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, for- 

 get them not for one hour in the day. If 

 you do, the little turkeys will for a time 

 loudly yelp " Ricordati di me," "O then re- 

 member me," in notes less melodious than 

 those of a prima 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 stimu- 

 lant. It has been actually wire-drawn. It 



