THB TUBKBT. 



attained an enormous weight, as much, indeed, as thirty ponnds. 

 These wild turkeys of Biiohmond, says Mr. Jesse, " were hunted 

 with dogs, and made to take refuge in the trees, where they were 

 frequently shot by George the Second. I have not been able 

 to learn how long they had been there preserved before his 

 reign, but they were totally destroyed towards the latter end 

 of it, in consequence of the dangers to which the keepers were 

 exposed in protecting them from poachers, with whom they had 

 many bloody fights, being frequently overpowered by them." 



Besides tiie American turkey (from which the bird of modem 

 LeadenhaU directly descends), there are two smaller sorts, — 

 one peculiar to Honduras, and the other (the Brush Turkey) 

 to Kew South Wales. One of the most remarkable circum- 

 stances connected with the economy of the latter bird is that, 

 instead of hatching its own eggs, it constructs an artificial 

 incubator. Having laid fifteen or twenty eggs, it collects a 

 quantity of decaying vegetable matter, and piles it over them, 

 trusting to the heat engendered during decomposition for the 

 production of its progeny. According to Gould, the naturalist, 

 " the heap employed for this purpose is collected by the birds 

 during several weeks previous to the period of laying ; it varies 

 in size from two to four cartloads, and is of a perfectly pyra- 

 midal form. The construction of the work is not the task of 

 one pair of birds, but is efiected by the united labours of several. 

 The same site appears to me, from the great size and the 

 entire decomposition of the lower part, to be resorted to for 

 several years in succession, the birds adding a fresh supply of 

 materials previous to laying. 



" The mode in which the material composing these mounds is 

 accumulated is equally singular, the bird never using the beak, 

 but always grasping a quantity in its foot, throwing it back- 

 wards to one common centre, and thus clearing the surface of 

 the ground for a considerable distance so completely, that 

 scarcely a leaf or a blade of grass is left. 



" The heap being accumulated, and time allowed for suScien'' 

 heat to be engendered, the eggs are deposited, not side by side, 

 as is ordinarily the case, but planted at the distance of nine or 

 twelve inches from each other, and buried at nearly an arm's 

 depth, perfectly upright, and with the large end upward. They 

 are covered up as tihey are laid, and allowed to remain till they 

 are hatched." 



The same indefatigable explorer was informed by the native 

 inhabitants that it was customaiy with the hen turkeys to 



