GALLINACE.E. 331 



with reddish warts ; the plumage of the body is 

 black, glossed with reflections, changing in various 

 lights to green, purple, and bronze. The tail consists 

 of eighteen broad feathers, rusty brown, crossed and 

 mottled with black. The female, as usual, has much 

 less metallic splendour than the male. The singular 

 note of the Turkey, called gobbling, is well known, 

 as is also his indignation at any object of a red hue. 

 Like many of the gallinaceous birds, his pride and 

 courage are most conspicuous in the presence of his 

 females ; inflating his frontal wattle, arching his 

 neck, and elevating his expanding tail, he struts 

 to and fro in most majestic stateliness ; dilating and 

 stiffening the quill-feathers of his wings, and scraping 

 them harshly against the ground as he proceeds, at 

 the same moment uttering a puff, as of retained 

 breath. Terrible and fatal battles often occur on 

 such occasions between rival males. They build on 

 the ground, with some attempt at concealment, and 

 the female lays from ten to twenty eggs. They 

 usually roost on the branches of trees ; but, except 

 for such a purpose, or to cross a river, rarely have re- 

 course to flight. 



A singular mode of taking the Wild Turkey alive 

 is mentioned by Charles Bonaparte, and which we 

 have ourselves seen practised in the Southern States. 

 It is " by means of pens, constructed with logs, cover- 

 ed in at top, and with a passage in the earth under 

 one side of it, just large enough to admit an indivi- 

 dual when stooping. The ground chosen for this 

 purpose is generally sloping, and the passage is cut 



