VOL. LXXI.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 33 



that out of the many hundreds which he had handled, very few exceeded 30 

 pounds; each of these speak of their being double that size merely from the 

 reports of others. 



The manners of these birds are as singular as their figure. Their attitudes in 

 the season of courtship are very striking. The males fling their heads and neck 

 backwards, bristle up their feathers, drop their wings to the ground, strut and 

 pace most ridiculously; wheel round the females with their wings rustling along 

 the earth, at the same time emitting a strange sound through their nostrils not 

 unlike the grurr of a great spinning wheel. On being interrupted they fly into 

 great rages, and change their notes into a loud and guttural gobble, and then 

 return to dalliance. The sound of the female is plaintive and melancholy. The 

 passions of the males are very strongly expressed by the change of colours in 

 the fleshy substance of the head and neck, which alters to red, white, blue, and 

 yellowish, as they happen to be affected. The sight of any thing red excites 

 their choler greatly. They are polygamous, one cock serving many hens. 

 They lay in the spring, and produce a great number of eggs. They will persist 

 in laying for a great while. They retire to some obscure place to sit, the cock 

 through rage at the loss of his mate being very apt to break the eggs. The 

 females are very affectionate to their young, and make great moan on the loss of 

 them. They sit on their eggs with such perseverance, that if they are not taken 

 away when addle, the hens will almost perish with hunger before they will quit 

 the nest. Turkies greatly delight in the seeds of nettles; but those of the 

 purple-fox glove prove fatal to them. Turkies are very stupid birds, quarrel- 

 some, and cowardly. It is diverting to see a whole flock attack the common 

 cock, who will, for a long time, keep a great number at bay. They are very 

 swift runners in the tame as well as the wild state: they are but indifferent flyers. 

 They love to perch on trees, and gain the height they wish by rising from bough 

 to bough. In a wild state they get to the very summit of the loftiest trees, even 

 so high as to be beyond the reach of the musquet. 



In the state of nature they go in flocks even of 500, feed much on the small 

 red acorns, and grow so fat in March that they cannot fly more than 3 or 4 

 hundred yards, and are soon run down by a horseman. In the unfrequented 

 parts bordering on the Mississippi, they are so tame as to be shot with even a 

 pistol. They frequent the great swamps of their native country, and leave them 

 at sun-rising to repair to the dry woods in search of acorns and berries; and 

 before sun-set retire to the swamps to roost. 



The flesh of the wild turkey is said to be superior in goodness to the tame, 



but redder. Eggs of the former have been taken from the nest, and hatched 



under tame turkies. The young will still prove wild, perch separate, yet mix 



and breed together in the season. The Indians sometimes use the breed pro- 



vol. xv. F 



