300 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



The young are believed to be very tender and subject 

 to many dangers from dampness. Some writers de- 

 clare that the mother leads them on high ground for 

 the first week or two of their life in order that they 

 may escape the dangers of dew or rain from the grass. 

 Audubon says: "To prevent the disastrous effect of 

 rainy weather the mother, like the skilful physician, 

 plucks the buds of the spicewood bush and gives them 

 to her young" ! The little birds are able to fly at about 

 two or three weeks old, and soon after that leave the 

 ground and roost on the low branch of a tree sheltered 

 under their mother's wings. When danger threatens, 

 the mother turkey, like many other gallinaceous birds, 

 calls to her young, which at once crouch and hide and 

 cannot then be seen. 



It is said that if the male turkey finds a nest of eggs 

 upon which the hen is sitting he will destroy them, and 

 that if he comes upon a brood of newly hatched young 

 he will kill them. It is certain that during the autumn 

 and winter the young birds and the females associate 

 together, while the old males keep by themselves and 

 do not begin to seek the society of their mates until the 

 approach of spring. 



In the Rocky Mountains the nests are built at an al- 

 titude of from 3,000 to 5,000 feet, but as the weather 

 grows warmer and the snow disappears, the old hen 

 leads the young up to the higher mountains, so that 

 they finally summer at from eight to ten thousand feet. 

 In the late autumn, when the weather grows cold and 

 snows come on the mountain ranges, the birds move 



