5o8 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



vast regions drained by these rivers from their confluence to Louisiana, including the wooded parts 

 of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama, arc most abundantly supplied with this magnificent bird. 

 It is less plentiful in Georgia and the Carolinas, becomes still scarcer in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 

 and is now very rarely seen to the east of the last-mentioned States. It is already extirpated from 

 the thickly-peopled portions of the continent. 



" The Turkey," continues Audubon, " is irregularly migratory, as well as irregularly gregarious. 

 When the supply of food in one portion of the country happens greatly to exceed that of another, 

 the turkeys are insensibly led towards that spot, by gradually meeting in their haunts with 

 more fruit the nearer they advance towards the place where it is most plentiful. In this . 

 manner flock follows after flock, until one district is entirely deserted, while another is, as it were, 

 overflowed by them. 



" About the beginning of October, when scarcely any of the seeds and fruits have yet fallen 

 from the trees, these birds assemble in flocks, and gradually move towards the rich bottom-lands of 

 the Ohio and the Mississippi. The males, or as they are more commonly called, the 'gobblers,' 

 associate in parties of from ten to a hundred, and search for food apart from the females; while the 

 latter are seen advancing singly, each with its brood of young, then about two-thirds grown, or in 

 connection with other families, forming parties amounting to seventy or eighty individuals, all intent 

 on shunning the old cocks, which, even when the young birds have attained this size, will fight with 

 and often destroy them by repeated blows on the head. Old and young, however, all move in the 

 same course and on foot, unless their progress be interrupted by a river, or the hunter's dog force 

 them to take wing. When they come to a river they betake themselves to the highest eminences, 

 and there often remain a whole day, or sometimes two, as if for the purpose of consultation. During 

 this time the males are heard gobbling, calling, and making much ado, and are seen strutting about 

 as if to raise their courage to a pitch befitting the emergency. Even the females and young assume 

 something of the same pompous demeanour, spread out their tails and run round each other, purring 

 loudly and performing extravagant leaps. At length, when the weather appears settled, and all 

 around is quiet, the whole party mount to the tops of the highest trees, whence, at a signal consisting 

 of a single cluck given by a leader, the flock takes flight for the opposite shore. The old and fat birds 

 easily get over, even should the river be a mile in breadth; but the young and less robust frequently 

 fall into the water, not to be drowned, however, as might be imagined. They bring their wings close 

 to their body, spread out their tail as a support, stretch forward their neck, and striking out their 

 legs with great vigour, proceed rapidly towards the shore, on approaching which, should they find 

 it too steep for landing, they cease their exertions for a few moments, float down the stream until 

 they come to an accessible part, and by a violent effort generally extricate themselves from the 

 water. It is remarkable that immediately after thus crossing a large stream, they ramble about for 

 some time as if bewildered ; in this state they fall an easy prey to the hunter. 



" When the turkeys arrive in parts where food is abundant, they separate into smaller flocks, 

 composed of birds of all ages and both sexes, promiscuously mingled, and devour all before them. 

 This happens about the middle of November. So gentle do they sometimes become after these 

 long journeys, that they have been seen to approach the farmhouses, associate with the domestic 

 fowls, and enter the stables and corn-cribs in quest of food. In this way, roaming about the 

 forests, and feeding chiefly on mast, they pass the autumn and part of the winter. 



" As early as the middle of February the females separate and fly from the males ; the latter 

 strenuously pursue, and begin to gobble or to utter their notes of exultation. Th^ sexes roost 

 apart, but at no great distance from each other. When a female utters a call-note, all the gobblers 

 within hearing return the sound, rolling note after note with as much rapidity as if they intended to 



