128 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



deal like a schoolboy with his first sweetheart — 

 who smiles and laughs at everything she says 

 and does. With the young turkey it may be his 

 first gobble on hearing the quaver of the hen. 

 He is made crazy, and may unceremoniously 

 rush to any sound that in the least resembles the 

 cry of the hen, without a thought of what he is 

 about or of the possible consequences. This is 

 generally the kind of gobbler the novice in calling 

 bags as his first, a two-year-old with a five-inch 

 beard. 



In the early morning, during the spring, a gob- 

 bler will fly from his roost to the ground, strut- 

 ting and gobbling, whether a hen is in sight or 

 not; this is done to attract the hens, and it is then 

 you will hear the puffs to which Audubon refers. 

 This sound is produced by the gobbler in expel- 

 ling the air from its lungs, at the beginning of the 

 strut, the sounds and motions of which have 

 never been satisfactorily described. While going 

 through the strut the gobbler produces a number 

 of notes and motions that are of interest; first, 

 the wings are drooped until the first six or eight 

 feathers at the end of the wings touch the ground; 



