a The Origin of a Small Race of Turkeys. [April 
Ocean about twenty miles off this coast. During my stay here 
this winter I have formed the acquaintance of Mr. J. P. Joyaux, 
who at that time had charge of the island, which was used princi- 
pally as a sheepwalk. It is about thirty miles long, and five to 
ten miles wide. There were no enemies upon the island with 
which the turkeys had to contend except a small gray fox, which 
was quite abundant. Six turkeys were received by Mr. Joyaux, 
two cocks and four hens. One of the cock’ died soon after 
their arrival. They were received in the winter. The next sea- 
son the four hens raised to maturity sixty-one birds, which when 
grown up were as large as their parents. The year following 
the produce was one hundred and twenty, of about the same size. 
I may here remark that the wild turkeys in my grounds at Ot- 
tawa, which have been hatched from eggs taken from the nest 
of the wild hen in the woods, have never bred till they were two 
years old, but some of the first generation raised in the grounds 
have bred when a year old, and generally the second or third 
generation have reproduced at a year old. Probably, therefore, 
not all of the hens of the first year’s brood bred the next year, 
and this may account for the smaller relative product the second 
' year than the first, and it is possible, and even probable, also, 
that Mr. Joyaux was unable to enumerate all of the second year’s 
produce. After that they had wandered away and reverted to 
the wild state, so that it was impossible to form any opinion of 
the increase, only that they have become very abundant, and are 
met with in the forests far away from the ranch where the first 
were turned loose, and if they are not as wild as the wild turkey 
is observed to be in his original haunts, it may be attributed to 
the fact that they are not hunted with dog and gun. 
In a very few years these birds bred upon the island were ob- 
served to have diminished very much in size, so that now it 
would be impossible to find a cock which would weigh over six 
pounds, which is less than one-third the size of their original 
ancestor or of the first and second generation bred there. 
Mr. Joyaux attributes this remarkable deterioration in size to 
inbreeding. He says their food is abundant, consisting of small 
acorns, a great variety of berries, an abundance of insects, and 
plenty of grass. While they do not get our domesticated grains, 
they find plenty of seeds of grasses and herbaceous plants in 
their season, and plenty of water everywhere. 
