TURKEYS. 



207 



is dry, the hens begin to look about for a place 

 in which to deposit their eggs. This place re- 

 quires to be as much concealed as possible. 

 The nest, which consists of a few withered 

 leaves, is placed on the ground, in a hollow 

 scooped out by the side of a log, or in the fall- 

 en top of a dry leafy tree, under a thicket of 

 sumach or briers, or a few feet of the edge of a 

 cane-brake, but always in a dry place. The 

 eggs, which are of a dull cream-color, sprinkled 

 with red dots, sometimes amount to twenty, al- 

 though their usual number is from ten to fifteen. 

 When depositing her eggs, the female always 

 approaches the nest with extreme caution, 

 scarcely ever taking the same course twice ; and 

 when about to leave them, covers them care- 

 fully with leaves, so that it is very difficult for 

 a person who may have seen the bird to discern 

 the nest. 



" Turkey hens not unfrequently prefer islands 

 for depositing their eggs and rearing their young, 

 probably because such places are less frequented 

 by hunters, and because the great masses of 

 drifted timber which usually accumulate at their 

 heads may protect and save them in cases of 

 great emergency. 



"When an enemy passes within sight of a 

 female while laying or sitting, she never moves, 

 unless she knows that she has been discovered, 

 but crouches lower until he has passed. They 

 seldom abandon their nest when it has been 

 discovered by men ; but never go near it again 

 when a snake or other animal has sucked any 

 of the eggs. 



" The mother will not leave her eggs, when 

 near hatching, under any circumstances, while 

 life remains. She will even allow an inclosure 

 to be made around her, and thus suffer impris- 

 onment rather than abandon them. 



"Before leaving the nest with her young 

 brood, the mother shakes herself in a violent 

 manner, picks and adjusts the feathers about 

 her belly, and assumes quite a different aspect. 

 She ultimately inclines her eyes obliquely up- 

 ward and sideways, stretching out her neck to 

 discover hawks or other enemies, spreads her 

 wings a little as she walks, and softly clucks to 

 keep her innocent offspring close to her. They 

 move slowly along; and, as the hatching gen- 



erally takes place in the afternoon, they fre- 

 quently return to the nest to spend the first 

 night there. In this tender state, when they 

 are only covered by a kind of soft hairy down, 

 rainy weather is extremely dangerous to them. 

 To prevent the disastrous effects of wet weath- 

 er, the mother, like a skillful physician, plucks 

 the buds of the spruce-wood bush, and gives 

 them to her young. 



" In about a fortnight, the young birds, which 

 had previously rested on the ground, leave it, 

 and fly at night to some very large, low branch, 

 where they place themselves under the deeply- 

 curved wings of their kind and careful parent, 

 dividing themselves for that purpose into two 

 equal parties. After this, they leave the woods 

 during the day, and approach the natural glades 

 or prairies in search of strawberries, and subse- 

 quently of dewberries, blackberries, and grass- 

 hoppers, thus obtaining abundant food and en- 

 joying the beneficial influence of the sun's rays. 

 They roll themselves in deserted ants' nests, to 

 clear their growing feathers of the loose scales, 

 and prevent ticks and other vermin from attack- 

 ing them, these insects being unable to bear the 

 odor of the earth in which ants have been. 



"About the beginning of October, when 

 scarcely any of the seeds and fruits have yet 

 fallen from the trees, these birds assemble in 

 large flocks, and gradually move toward the 

 rich bottom lands of the Ohio and Mississippi. 

 The males, or, as they are more commonly 

 called, the gobblers, associate in parties of from 

 ten to a hundred, and search for food apart 

 from the females ; and while the latter are seen 

 either advancing singly, each with its brood of 

 young, then about two-thirds grown, or in con- 

 nection with other families, forming parties oft- 

 en amounting to seventy or eighty individuals, 

 all intent on shunning the old cocks, which, 

 even when the young birds have attained this 

 size, will fight with, and often destroy them by 

 repeated blows on the head. Old and young, 

 however, all move in the same course and on 

 foot, unless their progress be interrupted by a 

 river, or the hunter's dog force them to take 

 wing. When they come upon a river, they be- 

 take themselves to the highest eminences, and 

 there often remain a whole day, or sometimes 



