NATURAL HISTORY. 



FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



In the spring of '65, while hunting 

 squirrels near Columbus, Ohio, my dog 

 flushed a wild hen turkey from a fallen 

 tree top. Near by I found her nest, with 

 10 eggs. I took them home and set them 

 under an old topknot hen. In 3 weeks the 

 eggs hatched. 



Sitting in the barn one day, I heard a 

 peeping upstairs and hurried up to see 

 the young birds. When I reached the mow 

 the old hen was running about with her 

 wings spread, clucking and making des- 

 perate efforts to gather her foster chil- 

 dren. They were all hidden under the 

 hay and still as mice. Procuring a basket, 

 I dug the turkeys out of the hay, caught 

 the hen and placed them all in a pen in 

 the yard, tying the hen with a cord so she 

 could not fly out. At once on being re- 

 leased from the basket, the young turkeys 

 skulked away, trying to hide and running 

 their heads under a leaf or anything to 

 get out of sight. The hen continued to 

 call them, but they paid no attention to 

 her. I left them there 3 days. During that 

 time 3 of them died. 



I then concluded to let nature take her 

 course, and turned them loose in an 18- 

 acre meadow. The young turkeys disap- 

 peared at once in the grass, with the hen 

 hot after them. She kept on their trail 

 and managed to get them together at night 

 and hover them. The next day I rode 

 into the meadow, and after searching a 

 long time saw the turkeys skulking 

 through the grass, trying to hide, with the 

 hen close behind them, also trying to hide. 

 I made weekly visits to the meadow, al- 

 ways finding them in hiding. They lived 

 on grasshoppers, etc., but were never fat. 

 After the grass was cut they used the 

 whole farm, and never came near the barn 

 until late in the fall. Then they came and 

 roosted on a rail fence. During the sum- 

 mer owls killed 3 of them. I selected the 

 largest gobbler of the 4 remaining turkeys 

 and kept him to cross with tame turkeys 

 the following spring. However, I failed 

 to get the cross. 



At that time, being a year old, the young 

 gobbler began to feel his importance, and 

 strutted around the poultry yard, seeming- 

 ly bent on convincing the roosters that he 

 was cock of the walk. This was dis- 

 puted by an old Dominick, and the battle 

 resulted in the defeat of the gobbler. Next 

 day they fought again. That time the roos- 

 ter was knocked out by a blow in the 

 solar plexus. They kept that up all sum- 

 mer, first one getting licked, then the 

 other. 



In the fall, to my great surprise, they 

 buried the hatchet, becoming fast friends 

 and objecting to being separated. They 

 left the flock of poultry, and roamed the 

 farm together, roosting side by side in the 

 barn. Often they would sit in the shade, 

 the rooster under the breast of the turkey, 

 with their heads close together. If dis- 

 turbed by any other rooster, they both 

 went for him and laid him out. 



Late in the fall I gave the rooster to a 

 colored man who lived x / 2 mile away, across 

 a deep ravine. When liberated the next 

 morning the rooster flew up on a rail 

 fence and crowed loud and long. The 

 turkey heard it and stretched his neck 

 high, looking in all directions and crying 

 "Quit! quit!" Again the rooster crowed, 

 and the turkey, locating the sound, flew 

 across the ravine and struck a bee line 

 for his friend, who still sat on the fence, 

 crowing. As soon as the turkey arrived, 

 the rooster joined him and they seemed 

 overjoyed to meet again. We attempted 

 to drive the turkey home, but failed. At 

 night I caught the turkey and carried him 

 home. Next morning the rooster crowed 

 again, and the turkey joined him as be- 

 fore. This continued until the death of 

 the rooster was decided on, and he was 

 killed. The turkey wandered around for 

 several days, calling and apparently mourn- 

 ing for his lost companion. 



R. H. Patterson, Chicago, 111. 



THE EUROPEAN HEDGEHOG. 



One of the most interesting animals I 

 met while on a collecting trip in Sweden, 

 in the interest of the National Museum, 

 was the European hedgehog, Erinaceus 

 europeaus, and I had an excellent oppor- 

 tunity to study its habits. 



It seems to prefer the open country in 

 the vicinity of habitations, where it spends 

 the day in hedges, gardens, clumps of 

 weeds, or under buildings. As night ap- 

 proaches, it leaves its hiding place in quest 

 of food. Although classed as an insecti- 

 vorous animal, it is not strictly so, being 

 in fact omnivorous. One of the first places 

 it visits is the kitchen door, where it 

 searches for scraps thrown out. Then it 

 is off to the meadow or garden in quest 

 of insects, worms or mice, but it is too 

 slow to catch many of the latter. It will 

 devour pieces of meat and the dead bodies 

 of small animals. 



While on these excursions it moves 

 slowly, examines everything it comes to. 

 and frequently pauses to listen. When 

 frightened, it starts off at a quick trot 

 until overtaken, and, should an attempt 



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