POTJLTET. '117 



dust, in order to clear their glowing feathers of loose scales and parasitic 

 vermin : deserted ants' nests are favorite dusting-places. 



By the month of August, the young birds acquire considerable growth, 

 and use their wings and legs with great vigor and readiness, so that they 

 are able to escape the sudden attack of foxes, lynxes, and other beasts 

 of prey, by rising quickly from the ground and mounting the tallest 

 branches of trees. The young cocks now begin to show their distinctive 

 characteristics, and even to utter an imperfect gobble, while the young 

 hens pur and leap. Several broods flock together, and so continue 

 united, till after the October migration, and through the winter, when 

 the males leave the females. 



Turkeys, though extremely delicate in their infancy, become very 

 hardy, and, if permitted, will roost on the highest trees, in the cold dry 

 nights of winter, without suffering injury. The hen, which lays many 

 eggs early in spring, sits thirty days, and covers from twelve to fifteen 

 eggs. It is unnecessary for the turkey cock, as is the case with galli- 

 naceous fowl, to be in constant intercourse with the hen during her period 

 of laying. Two visits from him in that season are sufficient to impreg- 

 nate all the eggs. She is a very steady sitter, and must be removed 

 to her' food and supplied with water, for she would never leave her nest. 

 She wants the alertness and courage and sagacity of the common hen, 

 and might be called a fool with much more propriety than the goose, 

 which is an intelligent bird. The turkey hen is incapable of teaching 

 her young ones how to pick up their food, on which account a poultry- 

 maid should always- attend them until they are reared. 



The author of " Tabella Cibaria" proves it upon the bird that it is " so 

 stupid or timorous that if you balance a bit of straw on his head, or 

 draw a line of chalk on the ground from his beak, he fancies himself 

 loaded, or so bound that he will remain in the same position till hunger 

 forces him to move. We made the experiment." We never did ; but 

 we doubt it not, though we cannot accept it as a proof of stupidity. 

 How much wit may be necessary to balance a straw may be doubtful ; 

 but gallant chanticleer has never been charged either with fear or folly, 

 and yet you have only to take him from his perch, place him on the 

 table by candle-light, hold his beak down to the table, and draw a line 

 with chalk from it, so as to catch his eye, and there the bird will re- 

 main spell-bound, till a bystander, rubbing out the line, or diverting 

 his attention from it, breaks the charm. Many a fowl have we fascinated 

 in our boyish days.* 



The Guinea-Fowl. — The Guinea-fowl is slightly larger than the ordi- 

 nary barn-door fowl, but is inferior in size to the larger foreign breeds, 

 as the Malay and Spanish ; in both aspect and character it appears to 

 occupy a position between the pheasant and the turkey. Although long 

 familiarized, the Guinea-fowl has never been fully domesticated, still re- 

 taining much of the restlessness and shyness of its primitive feral habits. 

 It is very courageous, and will not only frequently attack the turkey, 

 but even prove victorious in the encounter. 



The cock and hen are so nearly alike, that it is not easy to distin- 



* " TaheUa Cibaria." 



