HABITS OF ASSOCIATION AND ROOSTING 153 



suddenly in a close group, peer about, uttering 

 low purring sounds, while having a breathing 

 spell from the long run. Having regained their 

 composure, the old hens will sound several clucks 

 in rapid succession, terminating in a gutteral 

 cackle, when the whole of the flock will take 

 wing. With a wild roar, up they go in different 

 directions, alighting in the largest trees with sel- 

 dom more than two or three turkeys in a single 

 tree. If they are not satisfied with their first 

 selection of a roosting place, they will fly from 

 tree to tree until a satisfactory place is found; 

 then they settle down quietly for the night. 



Wild turkeys have a preference for roosting 

 over water, and they will often go a long way in 

 order to secure such a roost. The backwater 

 from the overflowing streams, when it spreads 

 out widely through the standing timber of the 

 river bottoms, affords them great comfort; also 

 the cypress ponds to be found in our Southern 

 river districts. They evidently fancy that there 

 is greater safety in such places. 



The turkey is happy when it can traverse the 

 ridges, glades, and flats in a day's ramble from 



