HABITS OF ASSOCIATION AND ROOSTING 157 



Southern river bottoms, in fall and winter, and 

 there they remain until driven to the uplands 

 by overflows, where they must subsist on pine 

 mast, or remain in the trees over the water, and 

 live on the young buds and tender leaves. I have 

 repeatedly noticed this in the Tombigbee swamps 

 in the State of Alabama. Those that do not go 

 to the hills and pine forests will hug the margin of 

 the overflow until the waters subside, when they 

 will immediately return to their former haunts, 

 however wet and muddy. When incubating time 

 comes they seek the higher, dryer, and more 

 open places, grassy and brush-covered abandoned 

 plantations, there to carry out the duties of 

 reproduction. 



After the season of incubation is at an end the 

 gobblers cease, almost entirely, associating with 

 the hens, collecting, as the summer advances, 

 in bands of from two to a dozen. Thus they re- 

 main all through the summer, autumn and win- 

 ter, acting the role of old bachelors or widowers, 

 and never separating unless disturbed by an 

 enemy. The females care for and rear the young 

 broods, returning to the swamps or hummocks 



