82 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



peared several years ago from the pen of that 

 very excellent naturalist, the late Judge Caton of 

 Chicago. This contribution is rather a long one, 

 and I shall only select such paragraphs from it 

 as are of special value in the present connection. 1 

 It is a well-known fact that the author of this 

 work made a long series of observations on wild 

 turkeys which he kept in confinement. He 

 raised many from the eggs of the wild turkey 

 taken in nature and hatched out by the common 

 hen on his own preserves. At one time he had as 

 many as sixty such birds, and he lost no oppor- 

 tunity to study their habits. They were of the 

 pure stock with all their characters as in the wild 

 form. These turkeys became very tame when 

 thus raised from the eggs of the wild birds, and 

 they did not deteriorate, either in size or in their 

 power of reproduction. "This magnificent 

 game bird," says Caton, "was never a native of 

 the Pacific Coast. I have at various times sent 

 in all about forty to California, in the hope that 



^aton, J. D. "The Wild Turkey and Its Domestication." Amer. 

 Nat. xi, No. 6, 1877, pp. 321-330, also Ibid, vii, 1873, where this author 

 states that "The vision of the wild turkey is very acute but the sense of 

 smell is very dull." (p. 431.) 



