226 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



conception of his grandeur and consequence. No pasha 

 with many tails, no Mongol mandarin with obsequious fol- 

 lowers, struts about with greater consequence, while the la- 

 dies of his harem gaze with meek and submissive admira- 

 tion on all their liege lord does. In his domestic arrange- 

 ments he is truly an autocrat of the first water, caressing 

 one, sharing his food with another, or punishing a third ; 

 however, he is not a brave gallant, for let a note suspicious 

 of alarm be heard, down will go his head, and, forgetful of 

 all his family ties, he will seek safety in the most precipit- 

 ous flight, not with wings, unless compelled, but on foot, 

 and at a. gait that would astonish an ostrich. When hu- 

 man inhabitants are scarce and brush abundant where wild 

 turkeys inhabit, they are not remarkable for their cunning ; 

 but if an old bird should remain sole survivor of his race 

 in the neighborhood of land newly settled, I doubt much if 

 a more crafty, suspicious animal can be found in the world ; 

 for his whole life seems to be spent in a state of uneasiness, 

 seeing and dreading danger in every breath of wind or 

 moving object. Not unfrequently this very watchfulness 

 leads to his destruction, for to avoid an imaginary danger 

 he runs into a real one. Again, although this bird may be 

 accredited with an unusual amount of cunning, some of his 

 actions are so extremely stupid, that it causes astonishment 

 in the mind of a reasoning being how qualities so dissimilar 

 can be found to exist together. 



As an instance, in some portions of the United States 

 where settlements are becoming daily more numerous, wild 

 turkeys still exist in considerable numbers, but the sports- 

 man who would go in their pursuit with the hope of ob- 

 taining a shot, will find his efforts fruitless and his labor 

 thrown away ; but the settler more probably one of his 

 young children will go into the uncleared land, search till 

 he discovers evidence where turkeys frequent, and then 



