154 THE TURKEY. 



" to be passing a yere, or two yeres old — three yeres is 

 the most, and too much — for, being olde, they are so 

 heavy in treading, they wyll commonlye hurt the 

 hennes, in broosing their backes, and treading off their 

 feathers off their baokes. And, also, it is not good to 

 keep two cookes in treading time ; for one will hinder 

 the other, so that your hennes' egges come to small 

 profite in setting." 



" Your turkie cock," says Markham, " should be a 

 bird, large, stout, proud, and majesticall, for, when he 

 walketh, dejected, he is never good." According to 

 M. Parmentier, both the cock and hen ought to have 

 short legs, a full shape, and great vivacity and energy 

 in all their actions. For breeding, it is peculiarly 

 necessary that both should be well formed, and in 

 healthy condition. 



. Turkey cocks are pugnacious and vindictive, and 

 often ill-treat the hens. I have known them to at- 

 tack children, and have witnessed combats between 

 them and the game cock, in which the latter was 

 more oppressed by the weight of his antagonist than 

 by gladiatorial skill — I have, in fact, seen the bulky 

 hero worsted ; he cannot use his spurs with the ad- 

 dress exhibited by the game cock, which, moreover, 

 fights with .method. 



SELECTION OF THE HEN. 



The hen turkey should be dark-colored, like the 

 cock — those with white feathers appearing amidst the 

 black plumage should be rejected ; her figure should 

 be plump, and her actions lively and animated. The 

 hen breeds when a year old, or rather in the spring 

 succeeding that in which she herself left the egg ; but 

 she is not in her prime until the age of two or three 

 years, and will continue for two or three years more in 

 full constitutional vigor. But whether the breeder 

 prefers to keep a etore stock for several years, or 

 a yearly or biennial change, will depend on his 

 views and the general practice of the^ neighborhood 



