■"HE TUKKBT. 



nnd continued motionless, as if dead. In the mean time, the 

 mother with her eyes directed upwards, continued her cries and 

 screaming as before. On looking up in the direction in which 

 she seemed to gaze, I discovered a black spot, just under the 

 clouds, but was unable at first to distinguish what it was ; 

 however, it soon proved to be a bird of prey, though at first 

 at too great a distance to be distinguished. I have seen one 

 of these birds continue in this agitated state, and her whole 

 brood pinned down, as it were, to the ground, for hours toge- 

 ther, whilst their formidable foe has taken his circuits and 

 mounted and hovered directly over their heads. At last, on 

 his disappearing the parent changed her note and sent forth 

 another cry, which in an instant gave hfe to the whole trem- 

 bling tribe, and they all flocked round her with expressions of 

 pleasure as if conscious of their happy escape from danger." 



If you have an obliging neighbour, owning a cock-turkey, 

 and living within a reasonable distance, keep nothing but hens, 

 for it very frequently happens that his lordship will quite lose 

 his patience at the length of time his spouse occupies for in- 

 cubation, and will endeavour to eject her from the nest by 

 main force, and the consequence is that the eggs get broken. 



According to her size, the turkey-hen will cover from nine 

 to fifteen eggs, and while she is sitting it will be necessary to 

 see that she is well provided with food and water, as, rather 

 than quit her precious charge for a moment, she wiU almost 

 starve. 



As soon as the chicks are hatched, they must be taken from 

 the nest and placed in a box, snugly lined with wool or flannel. 

 An old and very general practice, is to plunge them into cold 

 water, on the day of their birth, and to give each a pepper- 

 corn, in a little warm milk. The reason assigned for serving 

 them so is, that of all young birds, they are most likely to take 

 cold, and that this early cold-bath and peppering tends to 

 harden their constitutions ; "and, despite even this precaution," 

 says an old writer, " the young turkey chicks who perish 

 annually may be reckoned by thousands." It seems to me, 

 however, to be a question whether the mortality would not be 

 lessened were the " precaution" avoided. I know that farmers' 

 wives, to a woman, will look on this suggestion as rank 

 heresy ; but I cannot banish from my mind the various tor- 

 tures poultry are made to endure at the hands of these weU- 

 meanmg but superstitious dames. For example, there are 

 poulticy wives who insist that the proper way to cure a hen of 



