262 cassell's book of birds. 



If the call of the female comes from the ground, all the males immediately fly towards the spot, 

 and the moment they reach it, whether the hen be in sight or not, spread out and erect their tail, 

 draw the head back on the shoulders, depress their wings with a quivering motion, and strut 

 pompously about, emitting at the same time a succession of puffs from the lungs, and stopping now 

 and then to listen and look, but whether they spy the female or not they continue to puff and 

 strut, moving with as much celerity as their ideas of ceremony seem to admit. While thus occupied 

 the males often encounter each other, in which case desperate battles take place, ending in bloodshed 

 and often in the loss of many lives, the weaker falling under the blows inflicted upon the head by the 

 stronger. The moment a rival is dead the conqueror treads him under foot, but what is strange, not 

 with hatred, but with all the motions which he employs in caressing the female. 



" About the middle of April, when the season is dry, the hens begin to look out for a place to 

 deposit their eggs. This place requires to be as much as possible concealed from the eyes of the 

 Crow, as that bird watches the Turkey when going to her nest, and, waiting in the neighbourhood until 

 she has left it, removes and eats the eggs. The nest, which consists of a few withered leaves, is 

 placed on the ground, in a hollow scooped out by the side of a log, or in the fallen top of a dry leafy 

 tree, under a thicket of sumach or briars, or a few feet within the edge of a cornbrake, but always in 

 a dry place. AVhen laying her eggs the female approaches her nest very cautiously, scarcely ever 

 following the same track twice, and when she leaves them covers them so carefully with leaves that 

 it is very difficult for any person to find the nest, unless the mother has been suddenly started from it. 

 When on her nest, if she perceives an enemy, she sits still and crouches low until the intruder has 

 passed by, unless she is aware that she has been discovered." 



" I have frequently," says Audubon, " approached within five or six paces of a nest, of which I 

 was previously aware, assuming an air of carelessness, and whistling 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 now and 

 then a cluck." 



The mother seldom abandons her nest on account of its having been disturbed by man, but if 

 robbed by a snake or other wild animal she never approaches it again. If her brood has been 

 destroyed, she lays a second set of eggs, but usually rears only one brood in the season. Some- 

 times several mothers lay their eggs in the same nest. Audubon once found three sitting upon 

 forty-two eggs. In such a case one or other of the females always keeps guard over the nest, to 

 prevent the approach of the weaker kind of enemies. When nearly hatching, the hen will not leave 

 her eggs for any consideration, and will rather allow herself to be fenced in than desert her nest. 

 Audubon tells us he once witnessed the hatching of a brood of Turkeys. 



" I concealed myself," he says, " on the ground, within a very few feet, and saw the female 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 from the nest. I saw them 

 all emerge from the shell, and in a few moments after tumble, roll, and push each other forward, with 

 astonishing and inscrutable instinct." 



Before the old bird leaves the nest she shakes herself violently, preens her feathers, and assumes 

 quite a different appearance ; she raises herself, stretches out her neck, and glances about and around 

 to detect any enemy that may be nigh, spreads her wings, and clucking sofdy, endeavours to keep her 

 young family together. As the brood are usually hatched in the afternoon, they often return and spend 

 the first night in the nest, but afterwards remove to higher undulating ground, the mother dreading the 



