248 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



profit, because the young are much more diffi- of a woman who crosses the village every morn- 

 cult to bring up than chickens. For hundreds ing with her flock on her way to the open fields, 

 of years in F"rance (a country well adapted to On her return at night each bird knows where 

 poultf)') the raising of turkeys has been a great it belongs and goes there, never making a mis- 

 industry, and the finest specimens are found take. All the villagers do not need a male bird, 



TcRKRvs IX ,\ Field 



there. The So/ogiic turkey is unsurpassed. It a few being sufficient for a flock. It is a real 



is a superb animal of a brilliant black color, j^leasure to see these creatures marching 



though some (but these are usually small) are proudly along, with wings deployed and feathers 



white or steel-blue. A Sologne turkey which raised. They advance with the gravity of a 



attained the enormous weight of forty-fi\'e ruler in the midst 



pounds carried off the highest honors at all of his subjects, 



the shows to which he was sent. At Madrid, The white tur- 



in igo2, he e\'en had the honor of attracting the key is likewise a 



attention of the }'oung king and his mother, the superb animal, 



queen regent. During the return journey this The Dutch z^'/iitc 



VllCXO TcltKF.VS 



turkey took cold, and when he had scarcely re- breed is easily distinguished from the Sologne. 



covered he was killed by a scoundrel, who paid The latter is larger and attains a weight of from 



for his crime by si.\ months' imprisonment. twenty-five to thirty pounds, while the former 



There are villages in h'rance where turkeys weighs only from eighteen to twenty. Their 



are kept at the ixiblic e.\i)ense, under the care flesh is excellent and much in demand. In 



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