SOCIAL RELATIONS — NESTING 115 



fit, the mosquitoes and ticks bite it, and the de- 

 ciduous quills of the wings begin to get loose and 

 drop out, one at a time at long intervals, so that 

 some feathers are growing while others are falling. 

 This is also true of the body covering. The 

 tail becomes snaggled and awry, and at the time 

 the young turkey presents anything but a pleasing 

 appearance. The molting begins in August, and 

 it is the last of December before the full second 

 suit of feathers is completed. It is the irregular 

 growth of the feathers that often deceives the 

 hunter as to the age of the fowl. Once a friend of 

 mine and I, after a morning's hunt, stopped to rest 

 and got into our boat. He had three fine tur- 

 keys, the time being early in November, and 

 he remarked that he wished he had killed at least 

 one gobbler to put with his hens. On examina- 

 tion I showed him that two of his three were 

 young gobblers and the third an old hen, although 

 the birds were about the same size and the plu- 

 mage almost identical. 



The tuft or beard does not appear on the 

 young gobbler even in the Southern climate until 

 late in October or November, nor have I known 



