TURKEYS. . 103 



will still retain its original habits; and it is not 

 improbable, that, if left to themselves, the descend- 

 ants of our tame ones would in time resume the 

 wild habits of their forefathers, like those which 

 we have above mentioned, abounding near the Black 

 Sea. 



We are not, indeed, without instances of wild 

 Turkeys, at this day, in our own country, and a 

 curious anecdote has reached us of a friendship 

 taking place between a flock of these birds, and a 

 Partridge. It occurred at Tyninghame in Scotland, 

 where there is a breed of Turkeys, which never enter 

 into the poultry-house or yard, but roost in the trees, 

 and live chiefly on beech-mast, and anything else they 

 can pick up, though they are tame enough to come 

 about the house to be fed, in the time of frost and snow. 

 About eight or ten years ago, a cock Partridge, full 

 grown, suddenly joined himself to the flock of these 

 Turkeys, and remained with them constantly during 

 the whole Summer, Autumn, and Winter; at night 

 he slept under the trees in which they roosted; in 

 the clay he fed with them, and was not the least 

 frightened or disturbed by people walking among 

 them. He took great liberties with the old Turkey- 

 cock ; when he saw him going to pick up a worm 

 or any seed, he used to run under him between his 

 legs, and snatch it out of his mouth, the Turkey- 

 cock never resenting the indignity. Early in the 

 Spring he left them, as it was supposed, to find him- 

 self a mate for the pairing-season. But, in the 

 beginning of Autumn, he rejoined his old friends, 

 and continued with them as formerly until the next 



