THE TURKEY HISTORIC 95 



this set (No. 27868) is markedly roundish, with 

 minute brown speckling uniformly distributed. 

 There are nine (9) eggs in this clutch (No. 27868), 

 and apart from the differences in form, they all 

 closely resemble each other; and this is by no 

 means always the case, as the same hen may lay 

 any of the various styles enumerated above, 

 either as belonging to the same clutch, or at dif- 

 ferent seasons. 



As it is not the plan of the author of the present 

 work to touch, in this chapter, upon the general 

 habits of wild turkeys — their courtship, their 

 incubation, the young at various stages, nest- 

 ing sites, and a great deal more having to do 

 with the natural history of the family and 

 the forms contained in it — it would seem 

 that what has been set forth above in regard 

 to the eggs of the several subspecies in our 

 avifauna pretty thoroughly covers this part of 

 the subject. 



Shortly after the last paragraph was com- 

 pleted I received a valuable photograph of the 

 nest and eggs of M. g. merriami, and this I desire 

 to publish here with a few notes, although in so 



