THE WILD TURKEY. 135 



and beech, as well as of all kinds of grain, when to be obtained 

 without too much exposure. 



MIGRATIONS. 



The turkey is principally influenced in its movements after the 

 breeding-season by the abundance or non-abundance of food. 

 They often wander in enormous droves, at certain times, over a 

 wide extent of country in search of mast, on which they principally 

 feed during the late autumn and winter months. When they en- 

 counter a river during these peregrinations, they mount the loftiest 

 trees on the banks, and after a general conference, which some- 

 times, strange to say, lasts a day or two, the whole party, at a 

 given signal from the leaders, take flight and reach the opposite 

 shore without much difficulty. 



Should any, however, from want of confidence or strength, fail 

 in the effort and fall into the water, they swim with considerable 

 dexterity, and soon gain the land. 



THEIR DOMESTICATION. 



The wild turkey is a native solely of the New World; it is indi- 

 genous to the wilds of America, and the progenitor of the domestic 

 fowl so generally distributed over the whole civilized globe. 



It is, then, to the forests of our country that the Old World is 



