222 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



suck one of the eggs, she abandons them altogether. 

 Several females sometimes associate, deposit their eggs 

 in the same nest, and rear their broods together. In 

 such cases the nest is constantly guarded by one of the 

 party, so that no crow, raven, or even polecat, dare 

 approach it. When the eggs are near hatching, the 

 mother will not forsake them while life remains. 



On first quitting the shell the young are covered 

 only with a soft, delicate, hairy down, which affords 

 them no protection against humidity. Hence after very 

 rainy seasons Wild Turkeys are always scarce, because 

 when completely wetted the young rarely survive. At 

 the expiration of about a fortnight they quit the ground, 

 on which they had previously reposed at night under 

 the female, and follow her to some low large branch of 

 a tree, where they nestle under her broadly curved 

 wings. The time then approaches in which they seek 

 the open ground during the day, in search of straw- 

 berries, and afterwards of dewberries, blackberries, and 

 grasshoppers. After this the young birds grow rapidly, 

 and by the month of August, when several broods flock 

 together and are led by their mothers to the forest, 

 they are quite able to secure themselves from the attacks 

 of wolves, foxes, lynxes, and even pumas, by rising 

 quickly from the ground, and reaching with ease the 

 upper limbs of the tallest trees. These animals, espe- 

 cially the lynxes, together with the larger birds of prey, 

 the hawks, the eagles, and the owls, are among their 

 most deadly enemies. Man too destroys vast numbers 

 of them ; but to obtain them he is generally compelled 

 to employ cunning, for their speed of foot is so great as 

 to render it useless to attempt to course or run them 

 down. The various ways in which they are betrayed 

 are minutely described in the excellent work from which 

 the foregoing details of their habits are abstracted. 



