6 WILD TURKEY. 



may have seen the bird to discover the nest. Indeed, few Turkeys' nests 

 are found, unless the female has been suddenly started from them, or a 

 cunning Lynx, Fox, or Crow has sucked the eggs and left their shells scat- 

 tered about. 



Turkey hens not unfrequently prefer islands for depositing their eggs 

 and rearing their young, probably because such places are less frequented 

 by hunters, and because the great masses of drifted timber which usually 

 accumulate at their heads, may protect and save them in cases of great 

 emergency. When I have found these birds in svich situations, and with 

 young, I have always observed that a single discharge of a gun made 

 them run immediately to the pile of drifted wood, and conceal themselves 

 in it. I have often walked over these masses, which are frequently from 

 ten to twenty feet in height, in search of the game which I knew to be 

 concealed in them. 



When an enemy passes within sight of a female, while laying or sit- 

 ting, she never moves, unless she knows that she has been discovered, 

 but crouches lower untU he has passed. I have frequently approached 

 within five or six paces of a nest, of which I was previously aware, on 

 assuming an air of carelessness, and wliistling or talking to myself, the 

 female remaining undisturbed ; whereas if I went cautiously towards it, 

 she would never suffer me to approach within twenty paces, but would run 

 off, with her tail spread on one side, to a distance of twenty or thirty 

 yards, when assuming a stately gait, she would walk about deliberately, 

 uttering every now and then a cluck. They seldom abandon their nest, 

 'when it has been discovered by men ; but, I believe, never go near it 

 again, when a snake or other animal has sucked any of the eggs. If the 

 eggs have been destroyed or carried oflp, the female soon yelps again for 

 a male ; but, in general, she rears only a single brood each season. 

 Several hens sometimes associate together. I believe for their mutual 

 safety, deposit their eggs in the same nest, and rear their broods toge- 

 ther. I once found three sitting on forty-two eggs. In such cases, the 

 Common nest is always watched by one of the females, so that no Crow, 

 Raven, or perhaps even Pole-cat, dares approach it. 



The mother will not leave her eggs, when near hatching, under any 

 circumstances, while life remains. She will even allow an enclosure to 

 be made around her, and thus suffer imprisonment, rather than abandon 

 them. I once witnessed the hatching of a brood of Turkeys, which I 

 v,atched for the purpose of securing them together with the parent. I 



