My Boyhood and Touth 



strangest of the early spring sounds, being 

 easily heard on calm mornings at a distance of 

 a half or three fourths of a mile. As soon as the 

 snow was off the ground, they assembled in 

 flocks of a dozen or two on an open spot, usu- 

 ally on the side of a ploughed field, ruffled up 

 their feathers, inflated the curious colored 

 sacks on the sides of their necks, and strutted 

 about with queer gestures something like tur- 

 key gobblers, uttering strange loud, rounded, 

 drumming calls, — hoom! boom! boom! inter- 

 rupted by choking sounds. My brother Daniel 

 caught one while she was sitting on her nest in 

 our corn-field. The young are just like domestic 

 chicks, run with the mother as soon as hatched, 

 and stay with her until autumn, feeding on the 

 ground, never taking wing unless disturbed. 

 In winter, when full-grown, they assemble in 

 large flocks, fly about sundown to selected 

 roosting-places on tall trees, and to feeding- 

 places in the morning, — unhusked corn-fields, 

 if any are to be found in the neighborhood, or 

 thickets of dwarf birch and willows, the buds 

 [ 146 ] 



