202 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 
strut and gobble occasionally, but not near 80 much as 
their younger kindred. Barren hens, which also keep 
by themselves, are almost as demonstrative in displaying 
their vocal powers, airs, and feathers as the old males, 
whereas they are exceedingly coy and unpretentious when 
fertile. When the season is over, the males keep by them- 
selves in small bachelor parties; but, instead of being ex- 
ceedingly noisy as they were in the early part of the 
mating period, they become ulmost silent. Yet they 
sometimes strut and gobble on their roosts, though, as 
a general rule, they do not, and content themselves with 
elevating and lowering the tail feathers und uttering a 
puffing sound. They keep at this exercise for hours at 
a time on moonlight nights without rising from their 
perch, and sometimes continue it until daylight. 
When the hen is ready to lay, she scratches out a slight 
hollow in a thicket, a cane brake, beside a prostrate tree, 
in tall grass or weeds, or in a grain field, and lines it 
rudely with grass or leaves, and then deposits her eggs 
in it. These, which vary in number from ten to twenty, 
are smaller and more elongated than those of the domestic 
turkey, and are of a dull cream or a dirty white color, 
sprinkled with brownish-red spots. Audubon says that 
several hens may lay their eggs in one nest, and hatch 
them and raise the broods together. He found three 
hens sitting on forty-two eggs in a single nest, and one 
was always present to protect them. 
If the eggs are not destroyed, only one brood is raised 
ina year; but if they are, the female calls loudly for a 
male, and when she is rejoined by one, both kee) com- 
pany until she is ready to commence laying again, when 
she deserts him or drives him away. She builds her 
nest in the most secluded spot she can find, and covers 
it carefully with leaves or grass whenever she leaves it, 
