THE WILD TURKEY. 133 



which they roost at night under cover of the maternal 

 wing, and in the month of August such as have escaped 

 the claws of the lynx and the attacks of the " old 

 gobblers," are able to take care of themselves. Except- 

 ing in the breeding season the male and female birds, like 

 our own pheasants, are seldom seen together, but feed in 

 separate flocks, though not very far apart, and roost with 

 similar unsociability on different trees. 



According to Wilson's* account of this bird, "the 

 gobblers keep together in flocks varying from ten to a 

 hundred, whilst the females with their young form dis- 

 tinct troops, remaining at a distance from the old males, 

 which never lose a chance of attacking, and, if not driven 

 off by a posse of females, killing the young. The same 

 general direction of travel is observed by the troops of 

 both sexes in their migration in search of new feeding 

 grounds, and the journeys are always performed on foot. 

 When their progress is interrupted by a river they will 

 hesitate for a day or two on the banks, as if unwilling to 

 risk so formidable an undertaking. All this time the 

 males gobble continually, and strut about with absurd 

 importance ; the females and young also assuming much 

 of the same pompous air. At length the moment arrives, 

 and the whole mount to the tops of the highest trees and 



* American Ornithology. 



