298 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



nearly 20 per cent. In the western country turkeys 

 are great eaters of grasshoppers. They also destroy 

 the tobacco worm and moth when they can get them. 



The breeding season for the turkey ranges from 

 February to May, according to the latitude which the 

 bird inhabits. At the breeding time, and, indeed, 

 throughout the year until mating in the early spring, 

 the hens and young birds associate together and apart 

 from the gobblers. 



At mating time the gobbler's actions are those of the 

 domestic turkey. He gobbles loudly, struts and spreads 

 his tail, drags his wings on the ground and puffs him- 

 self out until he has made the proper impression on 

 the hen. Often several birds are going through this 

 performance about a single hen, and fights between 

 the males are common, and, it is said, sometimes with 

 fatal results. 



The nest is a mere hollow scratched in the ground, 

 lined or not lined with straws, grass and a feather or 

 two. The eggs vary in number from eight to four- 

 teen. Captain Bendire reports a case where there were 

 twenty-six eggs in a nest, but two hens were at the nest, 

 one sitting on the eggs and one standing close by 

 them. It is likely, therefore, that occasionally two hen 

 turkeys share a nest, as two quail sometimes do. 



Like many ground-nesting birds, the turkey is ex- 

 ceedingly hard to see when on her nest, and of the 

 turkey, as of other birds, various instances of thic> 

 have been related. Captain B. F. Goss, writing May, 

 1882, in southern Texas, says : 



