160 CLASS AVES. • 



points, to which the greatest regard should be paid. The 

 rain, the cold, the dew, and a too frequent exposure to the 

 sun, will prove pernicious to these delicate birds. As their 

 feet are very tender, and exposed to inflammation from the 

 pricking of nettles, thistles, &c., it is necessary to moisten 

 them now and then with brandy, which hardens the skin, and 

 fortifies the limb. For the first twenty-four hours after they 

 leave the egg, they should receive no food, but care must be 

 taken to leave them quietly under the sitting bird, and not 

 to remove them until the day after their birth. 



The first food of the young turkeys should consist of eggs, 

 boiled hard, and finely minced ; and after having been for 

 some days confined exclusively to this, they may receive 

 mixed with it boiled peas, and minced scallions. When they 

 are eight days old, the egg should be omitted, or, if continued, 

 the shell should be minced up with it, as this substance is cal- 

 culated to expedite digestion. If the weather be fine, the 

 young and old should be brought into a place where there is 

 short grass, or into a newly-mown meadow, still continuing 

 to give them their food three times a day, which should con- 

 sist of boiled peas, milk of lettuce, and minced nettles, 

 sometimes accompanied with oats or barley, boiled in milk. 

 When they are sixteen or eighteen days old, they may have a 

 minced mixture of absinthium, with lettuce, nettles, curdled 

 milk of burdock, a little stale camomile, and some bran. 



Every plant which is of a tonic and stomachic character, 

 agrees well with turkeys of all ages Fennel, wild endive, 

 &c., may enter with great propriety into the composition of 

 their food. They should likewise be suffered to seek in the 

 fields for all sorts of insects, snails, worms, grass, and other 

 vegetables, which fortify and preserve them from maladies. 

 Care must be taken to give them nothing but the clearest 

 water, and to shelter them immediately if a rain or thunder- 

 storm should come on, or even a strong gust of wind. At a 



