WILD TURKEY. 203 



county, New Jersey. The most eastern part of Pennsylvania now 

 inhabited by them, appears to be Lancaster county ; and they are often 

 observed in the oak woods near Philipsburg, Clearfield county. Those 

 occasionally brought to the Philadelphia and New York markets, are 

 chiefly obtained in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 



The Wild Turkeys do not confine themselves to any particular food ; 

 they eat maize, all sorts of berries, fruits, grasses, beetles ; and even 

 tadpoles, young frogs, and lizards, are occasionally found in their crops ; 

 but where the pecan nut is plenty, they prefer that fruit to any other 

 nourishment : their more general predilection is, however, for the acorn, 

 on which they rapidly fatten. When an unusually profuse crop of 

 acorns is produced in a particular section of country, great numbers of 

 Turkeys are enticed from their ordinary haunts in the surrounding dis- 

 tricts. About the beginning of October, while the mast still remains 

 on the trees, they assemble in flocks, and direct their course to the rich 

 bottom lands. At this season, they are observed, in great numbers, on 

 the Ohio and Mississippi. The time of this irruption is known to the 

 Indians by the name of the Turlcey month. 



The males, usually termed gobblers, associate in parties numbering 

 from ten to a hundred, and seek their food apart from the females ; 

 whilst the latter either move about singly with their young, then nearly 

 two-thirds grown, or, in company with other females and their families, 

 form troops, sometimes consisting of seventy or eighty individuals, all 

 of whom are intent on avoiding the old males, who, whenever opportu- 

 nity ofiers, attack and destroy the young, by repeated blows on the skull. 

 All parties, however, travel in. the same direction, and on foot, unless 

 they are compelled to seek their individual safety by flying from the 

 hunter's dog, or their march is impeded by a large river. When about 

 to cross a river, they select the highest eminences, that their flight may 

 be the more certain ; and here they sometimes remain for a day or more, 

 as if for the purpose of consultation, or to be duly prepared for so 

 hazardous a voyage. During this time the males gobble obstreperously, 

 and strut with extraordinary importance, as if they would animate their 

 companions, and inspire them with the utmost degree of hardihood : the 

 females and young also assume much of the pompous air of the males, 

 the former spreading their tails, and moving silently around. At length 

 the assembled multitude mount to the tops of the highest trees, whence, 

 at a signal note from a leader, the whole together wing their way 

 towards the opposite shore. All the old and fat ones cross without difii- 

 culty, even when the river exceeds a mile in width ; but the young, 

 meagre, and weak, frequently fall short of the desired landing, and are 

 forced to swim for their lives : this they do dexterously enough, spread- \ 

 ing their tails for a support, closing their wings to the body, stretching 

 the neck forwards, and striking out quickly and forcibly with their legs. 



