126 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



keys] begin to experience the impulse of prop- 

 agation. The females separate and fly from 

 the males. The latter strenuously pursue and 

 begin to gobble, or utter the notes of exultation. 

 The sexes roost apart, but at no great distance 

 from each other. When a female utters a call- 

 note, all the gobblers within hearing return the 

 sound, rolling note after note with as much 

 rapidity as if they intended to emit the last and 

 first together, not with the spread tails as when 

 fluttering round the hens on the ground, or prac- 

 tising on the branches of trees on which they 

 have roosted for the night, but much in the 

 manner of the domestic turkey when an unusual 

 noise elicits its singular hubbub." 



By this he means, when the wild gobbler on the 

 roost hears the call of the hen, he gobbles, and 

 dances on the limb without strutting, the same 

 as the tame gobbler will gobble when hearing a 

 shrill whistle or other sudden acute sound, with- 

 out evincing any amorous feelings; but it is not 

 always so. I have often seen the wild gobbler 

 strut on his roost, and I have shot them in such 

 an act when in full round strut. 



