1 54 [Assembly 



nia and Pennsylvania ; and is extremely rare in the remaining 

 northern and eastern parts of the United States. We have it, 

 though, from the best authority, that wild turkeys are yet to be 

 found in the mountainous districts of Sussex county, New Jersey. 

 The most eastern part of Pennsylvania now inhabited by them is 

 Lancaster county ; and they are often observed in the oak woods 

 near Philipsburgh, Clearfield county. Those occasionally brought 

 to the Philadelphia and New- York markets, are chiefly obtained 

 in Pennsylvania and New- Jersey, and, as may be readily supposed. 

 in either of these States they are not very abundant. The wila 

 turkeys do not confine themselves to any particular food ; they 

 eat maize or Indian corn, all sorts of berries, fruits, grains and 

 grasses ; and even tadpoles, young frogs and lizards, are occasion- 

 ally found in their crops ; but where the pecan nut, a variety of 

 the hickory, is plenty, they prefer that food to every other. Their 

 more general predilection is, however, for the acorn, or mast, on 

 ■which they readily fatten. When an unusually profuse crop of 

 acorns is produced in a particular section of country, great num- 

 bers of turkeys are enticed from their ordinary haunts in the sur- 

 rounding districts, where the acorn abounds. This food, owing 

 to its abundance, as it is to be found more or less in all our large 

 forests, is one reason why it is a favorite with the turkey ; it is 

 more easily procured, and can be depended on with more cer- 

 tainty. About the beginning of October, while the mast still re- 

 mains on the trees, they assemble in flocks, and direct their course 

 to the rich bottom lands. At this season they are observed in 

 great numbers on the Ohio and Mississippi. The time of this ir- 

 ruption is known to Indians by the name of the turkey month. 

 The males, usually termed gobblers, associate in parties number- 

 ing from ten to a hundred, and seek their food apart from the 

 females ; whilst the latter either move about singly with their 

 young, then nearly two-thirds grown, or in company wath other 

 females and their families, form troops, sometimes consisting of 

 seventy or eighty individuals, all ot whom are intent on avoiding 

 the old males, who, whenever an opportunity offers, attack and 

 destroy the young by repeated blows on the head. All parties, 

 however, travel in the same direction, and on foot, unless they 

 are compelled to seek their individual safety by flying from the 

 hunter's dog, or their march is impeded by natural obstructions. 



