344 



THE GEKESEE FAR^fER. 



brood. Our practice is, in a few days after the 

 process of hatching is completed, to put the heuv 

 into a large coop or pen of one or two roils in 

 extent, with one side at least open with slats or 

 stakes, to admit ingress and egress of the chicks, 

 •while their mothers, naturally great gossips, are 

 restrained from long peregrinations, too toilsome 

 and hazardous for the tender offspring. On the 

 outside and in the vicinity of the pen, the cock 

 spends his days in becoming assiduous to the infant 

 family, and his nights in roosting close by it. 



A DOMESTIC TURKEY COCK 



Quickly does it happen that they become more 

 fond of his society than of their pent-up mother's. 

 As soon as his supremacy over them is well under- 

 stood, and their strength admits of it, he will 

 abduct them, no one can guess how far, as stealthily 

 as the unprincipled swain runs off with his improv- 

 ident lass for a clandestine marriage. Search for 

 the missing ones is usually as unsuccessful in one 

 case as in the other. However, Mr. Gobbler is a 

 far better proteccor of his treasure than the sjiecu- 

 lating lover, who steals his wife from her fond 

 parents. The former never abandons his charge ; 

 whereas the latter frequently does, leaving his 

 deceived fair one, after being robbed of all she 

 possessed, to return. in disgrace and poverty to her 

 broken-hearted family. It is amusing to see how 

 faithfully the cock turkey, when thus the sole 

 guardian of his children, will seek to provide them 

 with food and to protect them from injury. In 

 the night and in stormy weather, he spreads over 



them his broad wings, and if a hawk is seen, the 

 same is done to shelter tliem from his marauding 

 descent upon them; if they have become too large 

 to be thns sheltered, they collect around him as 

 close as possible, while his gorgeous crest rises 

 above them, not more captivating and alluring to 

 an enemy than the expressive banner which floats 

 in the breeze over the well-mounted and strongly- 

 manned fort. 



We annex the following anecdote of a cock tur- 

 key we once possessed. Among a brood there was 



one male, a long leg- 

 ged fellow of a most 

 unique appearance. 

 During the period of 

 incubation, or as soon 

 as one of the hens 

 began to set — which 

 she, seeming to know 

 the old fellow's pro- 

 pensity, was very 

 careful to manage in 

 a very private and 

 secret manner — he 

 began to grow un- 

 easy, and mounted 

 the fences, watching 

 for the place of her 

 concealment, which 

 he usually discovered 

 the first or second 

 day; when he, by 

 virtue of his autlu)r- 

 ity as one of the lords 

 of creation, immedi- 

 ately took possessicm 

 of the nest, and from 

 that time forward, 

 till the period of 

 hatching, went on 

 with the regular pro- 

 cess, when he brought 

 out his brood and 

 duly carried them 

 forward to maturity, 

 when tlie hen, poor 

 simple wife, was al- 

 lowed to trud^ie along 

 at a respectable dis- 

 tance, in the true after-honeymoon style. 



Another instance. It appears that a male turkey 

 kept on the farm of a gentleman in Rhode Island 

 resolved on a revolution in turkeyism. Accord- 

 ingly, he drove from the nest one of his better 

 halves, where there were twenty- one eggs, and 

 performed the duties of incubation himself. The 

 duties were so well performed that eigliteen young 

 turkies duly made their appearance. Nor was this 

 all. lie became so pleased with the lemale cares 

 of domestic life that he spurned all interference 

 from the gentler sex. When his own brood was 

 fairly out of the shell, and finding that others of 

 the household had been occuined in the same labor 

 so that there is in all sixty-seven young turkies to 

 be taken care of, he determined to have undivided 

 dominion in the domestic realms of turkeydoin. 

 This he did by turning the entire female fraternity 

 out of doors, and taking the whole care of the 

 nursery upon himself. c. n. bement. 



