
242 WILD TURKEY. 
= 
The mother will not forsake her eggs, when near hatching, 
while life remains; she will suffer an enclosure to be made 
around and imprison her, rather than abandon her charge. 
Mr Audubon witnessed the hatching of a brood, while thus 
endeavouring to secure the young and mother. “TI have laid 
flat,” says he, “within a very few feet, and seen her gently 
rise from the eggs, look anxiously towards them, chuck with 
a sound peculiar to the mother on such an occasion, remove 
carefully each half-empty shell, and with her bill caress and 
dry the younglings, that already stand tottering and attempt- 
ing to force their way out of the nest.” 
When the process of incubation is ended, and the mother 
is about to retire from the nest with her young brood, she shakes 
herself violently, picks and adjusts the feathers about the belly, 
and assumes a different aspect; her eyes are alternately inclined 
obliquely upwards and sidewise ; she stretches forth her neck 
in every direction, to discover birds of prey or other enemies ; 
her wings are partially spread, and she softly clucks to keep 
her tender offspring close to her side. They proceed slowly ; 
and as the hatching generally occurs in the afternoon, they 
sometimes return to pass the first night in the nest. While 
very young, the mother leads them to elevated dry places, as 
if aware that humidity during the first few days of their life 
would be very dangerous to them, they having then no other 
protection than a delicate, soft, hairy down. In very rainy 
seasons wild turkeys are scarce, because, when completely 
wetted, the young rarely survive. 
At the expiration of about two weeks, the young leave the 
eround, on which they had previously reposed at night under 
the female, and follow her to some low, large branch of a tree, 
where they nestle under the broadly curved wings of their 
vigilant and fostering parent. The time then approaches in 
which they seek the open ground or prairie land during the 
day in search of strawberries, and subsequently of dewberries, 
blackberries, and grasshoppers, thus securing plenty of food, 
and enjoying the influence of the genial sun. They frequently 
