142 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



ever stopping. Of course, when the food supply 

 is limited and scant, as during the seasons of 

 dearth of mast, the turkeys are necessarily com- 

 pelled to wander farther in order to secure suf- 

 ficient food ; but they will always return to their 

 native haunts when their appetites are appeased. 

 In the early morning, all things being favor- 

 able, their first move after leaving the roost is in 

 search of food, which search they undertake 

 with characteristic vigor and energy, scratching 

 and turning over the dry leaves and decaying 

 vegetation. Two kinds of food are thus gained: 

 various seed or mast, fallen from the trees 

 and bushes, and all manner of insects, of 

 both of which they are very fond, and which 

 constitute a large part of their food supply. 

 There is no bird of the gallinaceous order that 

 requires and destroys more insects than wild 

 turkeys. They will scratch with great earnest- 

 ness over a given space, then, all at once, start 

 off, moving rapidly, sometimes raising their 

 broad wings and flapping them against their 

 sides, as if to stretch, while others leap and skip 

 and waltz about. Then they will go in one di- 



