WILD TURKEY. 7 



concealed myself on the ground within a very few feet, and saw her raise 

 herself half the length of her legs, look anxiously upon the eggs, cluck 

 with a sound peculiar to the mother on such occasions, carefully remove 

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

 that already stood tottering and attempting to make their way out of the 

 nest. Yes, I have seen this, and have left mother and young to better 

 care than mine could have proved, — to the care of their Creator and 

 mine. I have seen them all emerge from the shell, and, in a few moments 

 after, tumble, roU, and push each other forward, with astonishing and 

 inscrutable instinct. 



Before leaving the nest with her young brood, the mother shakes her- 

 self in a violent manner, picks and adjusts the feathers about her belly, 

 and assumes quite a different aspect. She alternately inclines her eyes 

 obliquely upwards and sideways, stretching out her neck, to discover 

 hawks or other enemies, spreads her wings a little as she walks, and 

 softly clucks to keep her innocent offspring close to her. They move 

 slowly along, and as the hatching generally takes place in the afternoon, 

 they frequently return to the nest to spend the first night there. After 

 this, they remove to some distance, keeping on the highest undulated 

 grounds, the mother dreading rainy weather, which is extremely danger- 

 ous to the young, in this tender state, when they are only covered by a 

 kind of soft hairy down, of surprising delicacy. In very rainy seasons. 

 Turkeys are scarce, for if once completely wetted, the young seldom 

 recover. To prevent the disastrous effects of rainy weather, the mother, 

 like a skilful physician, plucks the buds of the spice-wood bush, and gives 

 them to her young. 



In about a fortnight, the young birds, which had previously rested on 

 the ground, leave it and fly, at night, to some very large low branch, 

 where they place themselves under the deeply curved wings of their kind 

 and careful parent, dividing themselves for that purpose into two nearly 

 e({ual parties. After this, they leave the woods during the day, and ap- 

 proach the natural glades or prairies, in search of strawberries, and sub- 

 sequently of dewberries, blackberries and grasshoppers, thus obtaining 

 abundant food, and enjoying the beneficial influence of the sun's rays. 

 They roll themselves in deserted ants' nests, to clear their growing fea- 

 thers of the loose scales, and prevent ticks and other vermin from attack- 

 ing them, these insects being unable to bear the odour of the earth in 

 which ants have been. 



