114 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



its first appearance the young wild turkey is 

 covered with a suit of light gray fluffy down, 

 dotted with dusky spots, and with two dusky 

 stripes from the top of the head, down the sides 

 of the back to the rump ; but this is soon replaced 

 by a covering of deciduous feathers, and this 

 in turn by the permanent suit at molting in 

 August and September. The first crop of feath- 

 ers which takes the place of the down grow very 

 rapidly, assuming in their maturity the precise 

 shape and color of the subsequent and perma- 

 nent growth, and at three months the turkey is 

 in appearance the same as one of nine months. 

 The young bird of two or three pounds weight 

 has the same outline of form as the yearling, but 

 the little fellow in down bears a striking resem- 

 blance to a young ostrich. The deciduous 

 feathers mature quickly, and the quill-ends dry 

 before the young bird is a quarter grown; hence 

 the feathers grow no more. But the bird grows 

 until molting-time arrives, when the young fowl, 

 if a gobbler, will weigh from seven to nine pounds. 

 The molting season comes on apace, and the bird 

 is out of humor; for its clothes, as it were, do not 



