322 The Wild Turkey and its Domestication. [June, 
son they were a year old neither showed the least inclination to 
` breed. The male was not heard to gobble, the wattles upon the 
neck did not turn red, and he was not observed to strut, as is 
usual with the male turkey in the breeding season. The next 
year he made up for all this, and the female also well repaid me 
for waiting. All the others I have had have bred freely when a 
year old. 
Iam now wintering the eleventh generation of the domesti- 
eated wild turkey, though the progenitors of a portion of my 
flock were introduced more recently. They generally occupy the 
South Park, about forty acres in extent, mostly covered with sec- 
ond-growth trees of about twenty-five years’ standing, with a 
considerable number of old oak trees interspersed. In the park 
are ravines with good hiding-places. It is heavily set with blue- 
grass and some white clover, 
The effect of domestication has been very marked. They have 
not deteriorated in size or in reproductive powers. They have 
always been healthy excepting in'the summer of 1869, when they 
were afflicted with some disease from which about three quarters 
of the flock died. They have changed in form and in the length 
of the legs. The body is shorter and more robust, and its posi- 
tion is more horizontal; but most especially have they varied 
in color. These changes I have constantly watched. In the first 
and even the second generation but little change was observed. 
After that the tips of the tail feathers and of the tail coverts be- 
gan to lose the soft, rich chestnut brown so conspicuous on the 
wild turkey of the woods, and to degenerate to a lighter shade ; 
the beautiful, changeable purple tints on the neck and breast be- 
came marked with a greenish shade; the bristles on the naked 
portions about the head became more sparse or altogether disap- 
peared; the blue about the head and the purple of the wattles 
were replaced by the bright red observed on the tame turkey-cock 3 
the beautiful pinkish-red of the legs became dull or changed to 
brown. The next year, or when the bird was in its second year's 
growth, say in the third generation, these marks of degereration 
would on most of the specimens, especially of the cocks, disap- 
pear,-and the plumage would show the thorough-bred wild tur- 
key. Each succeeding generation shows these changes to be 
more pronounced, but each year as the bird gets older the shades 
of color of the wild parent become more distinct. The change of 
form keeps pace with the change of color, which is much more 
manifest on the hen than on the cock. I haye hens now three oF 
