326 The Wild Turkey and its Domestication. [June, 
be described where to look. Experience has proved that I do not 
get nearly as many young from those which are obliged to nest 
in the South Park as from those which retire to complete seclu- 
sion and are never seen or heard of, except by chance, till their 
chicks are as large as quails. 
My observations accord with those of Audubon as to the 
riendly relations existing between the brood hen-turkeys. It 
s not uncommon for two or three hens to lay in the same nest, 
and then set upon the eggs and raise the young together, though 
this I always look upon as a misfortune, for most likely they 
will not commence laying: together, so that after one commences 
setting the other will keep on laying for a week or two before 
she commences setting. As neither will remain a day after the 
first chick is hatched, of course all the late-laid eggs are lost, 
unless they are taken out and put under a hen, when they gen- 
erally hatch out, although they may have lain a day in the nest 
after they were deserted, if the weather is warm. The hen is 
often a very pertinacious setter, remaining upon the nest a week 
or more after all the eggs have been removed. I once found a 
hen setting upon an empty nest on a declivity of a ravine, and 
found the eggs scattered about, some very near the foot of the 
hill, and quite cold, — the mischief of a peacock. Those not 
broken were returned to the nest. When approached the hen 
ran away, but soon returned to the nest and hatched out every 
one of the eggs and raised the birds. The hen, so far as I have 
observed, never remains upon the nest longer than the morning 
after the first bird is hatched, though there may be no more than 
one bird out, leaving all the remaining eggs to their fate. When 
a day old the chick can follow the hen, though it may tumble 
down on every foot of the ground it runs over. When two 
or three days old it will follow the hen with astonishing vigor, 
and will trail through the grass in a cold rain storm without in- 
jury, when similar exposure would have been fatal to the domes- 
tic turkey. I have had repeated opportunities to test this, and I 
do not believe that I ever lost a young bird by reason of its get- 
ting wet. Even the hybrids! are capable of enduring exposure, 
when but a few days old, from which we should despair of the 
domestic bird. : 
When two young broods meet in the woods neither hen will 
show hostility to the young of the other, and they will generally 
separate after a little social intercourse; but sometimes they will 
1 I use this term not in its strict sense, but for convenience. 
