UPLAND GAME BIRDS 125 



pomp and vanity of the strutting gobbler ; indeed, in his 

 actions he might pass for a turkey bantam, but he has 

 one marked peculiarity. It is his habit to perch in some 

 thick-growing tree, and by filling the sacs upon his neck 

 with air and abruptly expelling it to produce a low boom- 

 ing whistle, which has ' an extraordinary carrying and 

 ventriloquial power. This booming, or ' booing ' as 

 some Westerners term it, seldom fails to puzzle sorely a 

 tenderfoot, the baffling feature of it being that it does 

 not appear to gain volume or distinctness when the bird 

 is closely approached." ^ 



In May or June, according to location, the wooing 

 begins, and soon the mother is brooding on her eight 

 bufFy eggs in the shade of a fern tangle, near a log, or in 

 a cluinp of manzanita. No part does the father take in 

 the three weeks of patient incubation, but the mother 

 can seldom be surprised away fi'om the nest. It would 

 be far easier to discover the eggs were she not covering 

 them, for so protective is her coloring that you may be 

 looking directly at her and never suspect it, although at 

 that very moment you are searching for a nest. Her 

 food is all about her, — buds, berries, and insects. If 

 she leaves the eggs, it is only to stretch her tired little 

 legs and pick up a few dainties close by. But once the 

 little mottled puff-balls are out of the shell and dry, 

 away she goes, proud as a peacock, with them at her 

 heels. And now the father is introduced to family cares, 

 and he scratches for bugs, calling the young with impera- 

 tive little chucks to come. He is the drill-master of the 



1 Upland Game Birds. 



