90 THE WILD TURKEY. 



been a primitive colour with them, else the transition 

 from black to white would be rather unaccountable. 

 In a state of nature, they are said to parade in flocks 

 of five hundred, and even five thousand, feeding, in 

 general, where abundance of nettles are to be found, 

 the seed of which is their common food : they also 

 feed upon a small red acorn, which, in the warm 

 and fertile parts of America, is ripe in March, when 

 the turkeys become so fat as to be unable to fly 

 more than a few hundred yards, and are then soon 

 run .down by dogs and horsemen. They roost upon 

 the highest trees, and are very easily shot or other- 

 wise destroyed, being a heedless and stupid bird. 

 Since the planting and cultivation of such extensive 

 tracts in America, the wild breed of turkeys has 

 been driven into the uncultivated regions, and has 

 long since become very rare. The Indians make 

 elegant clothing and beautiful fans of wild turkey 

 feathers, and the French of Louisiana manufacture 

 them into umbrellas. 



The antipathy which the turkey cock entertains 

 for any thing of a red colour is well known; and 

 will indeed never be forgotten by myself, who, at 

 about the age of eight years, having on a red 

 waistcoat, was chased by two of them around a very 

 extensive yard, to my most terrible affright and dis- 

 comfiture. The county of Norfolk breeds the largest 

 quantity of these fowls for market, which in the 

 season, used formerly to travel, in their store state, 

 upwards of one hundred miles, in a certain number 

 of days, to the metropolis ; but from the date of our 

 late improvements, their passage to London has 

 been generally made by land carriage, some still 



