No. 133.] 157 



difficult, even for one who has watched her movemenls, to indi- 

 cate tlie exact spot. When laying or sitting, the turkey hen is 

 not easily driven from her post by the approach of apparent dan- 

 ger ; but, if an enemy appears, she crouches as low as possible, 

 and sutlers it to pass. A circumstance related by Audubon, will 

 show how much intelligence they display on such occasions : 

 having discovered a sitting hen, he remarked, that by assuming 

 a careless air, whistling or talking to himself, he was permitted 

 to pass within five or six feet of her ; but if he advanced cau- 

 tiously, she would not suffer him to come within twenty paces, 

 but ran off twenty or thirty yards, with her tail expanded, when 

 assuming a stately gait, she paused on every step, occasionally 

 uttering a chuck. They seldom abandon their nests on account 

 of being discovered by man, but should a snake or any other wild 

 animal suck one of her eggs, the parent leaves them altogether. 

 If the eggs be removed, she again seeks the male and recom- 

 mences laying, though otherwise, she lays but one nest of eggs 

 during the season. Several turkey hens sometimes associate per- 

 haps, for mutual safety, and deposit their eggs in the same nest, 

 and rear their broods together. Mr. Audubon once found three 

 females sitting on forty-two eggs. In such cases, the nest is con- 

 stantly guarded by one of the parties, so that no crow, raven or 

 pole cat, dares approach it.- The mother will not forsake her 

 eggs when near hatching, while life remains ; she will suffer an 

 enclosure to be made around and imprison her, rather than aban- 

 don her charge. 



Mr. Audubon witnessed the hatching- of a brood while thus 

 endeavoring to secure the young and mother. " I have lain," 

 says he, "flat for some time within a few feet, and seen her gently 

 rise from the eggs, look anxiously towards them, cluck with a 

 sound peculiar to the mother on such occasions, remove carefully 

 each half empty shell, and with her bill caress and dry the 

 younglings, that already stand tottering and attempting to force 

 their way out of the nest." When the process of incubation is 

 ended, and the mother is about to retire from the nest with her 

 young l)rood, she shakes herself violently, picks and adjusts her 

 feathers about the breast and under parts of her body, and as- 

 giunes a different aspect ; her eyes are alternately inclined oblique- 



