260 The Turkey Family 



difficult to keep than were those hatched from 

 eggs taken before the wild bird had begun to sit. 

 This would be interesting if it could be proved, 

 but, without proof, I question it, although it might 

 be so. The same men, inveterate poachers all 

 and wise concerning dogs, would not give a rap 

 for a pointer, setter, or hound puppy that had been 

 reared by any non-sporting foster-mother, with 

 the single exception of a collie. They claimed 

 that the collie had brains and could hunt well if 

 properly taught, and that her milk had the same 

 properties as ' that of a hunting dog, which was 

 true ; and that a common barnyard fowl, or even 

 a domestic turkey-hen (providing there was no 

 too near wild cross), in some mysterious way in- 

 fluenced the chicks in the eggs she covered, if she 

 got the eggs before a wild bird had partially de- 

 veloped the chicks. While most unscientific old 

 men are both superstitious and bull-headed on 

 points of this kind, there frequently is a grain of 

 truth somewhere at the bottom of their philoso- 

 phy. Possibly a trace of it might be found here. 

 Contrary to a somewhat prevalent belief, the 

 variety of turkey now under discussion, which I 

 may term the bird of the North, is not the original 

 parent of all domestic turkeys. While most of 

 these, bronze, white, black, brown, and gray, are 

 descended from wild American stock, the first 

 turkeys to cross the ocean were of the Mexican 



