88 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



than those of the goose or the barnyard fowl, 

 and are much smaller in proportion to the size 

 of the bird." 



This, in the main, is a fair description of the 

 eggs of Meleagris, while at the same time it may 

 be said that the ground color is not always 

 "white," nor the markings exactly what might 

 be denominated "specks." 



Turkey eggs of all kinds, laid by hens of the 

 wild as well as by those of the domesticated 

 birds, have been described and figured in a great 

 many popular and technically scientific books 

 and other works, in this country as well as 

 abroad. A large part of this literature I have 

 examined, but I soon became convinced of the 

 fact that no general description would begin to 

 stand for the different kinds of eggs that turkeys 

 lay. They not only differ in size, form, and mark- 

 ings, but in ground colors, numbers to the clutch, 

 and some other particulars. Then it is true that 

 no wild turkey hen, of any of the known sub- 

 species or species of this country, has ever laid an 

 egg but what some hen of the domestic breeds 

 somewhere has not laid one practically exactly 



