THE POULTRY BOOK. 
267 
the weather is mild and warm towards the end of February, the forests, 
just before day and at daybreak, are filled with the gobblings of the cocks, and the 
responsive duckings of the hens ; and this continues through March and April. 
By the close of the latter month the clucking has almost entirely ceased, as the 
hens are upon their nests, which they keep carefully concealed from the gobblers. 
These latter, at this time,'worn out with their amorous duties and battles with their 
rivals, are nearly mute; and now, having nothing to fight about, and being weak 
and thin, wander about by themselves through the summer, too worthless for 
powder and shot. So poor are they, that they have given rise to an Indian 
proverb, ‘ As poor as a turkey in summier.’ 
The hen generally makes her nest some two or three hundred yards from the 
edge of the forest in the prairie, and never very far from water, to v/hich, being a 
thirsty bird, she makes about three visits a day — in the morning, at noon, and in 
the evening. Prairie sloughs, which run out some distance from the main timber 
into the prairies, and which have some little timber upon them, are favourite nest- 
ing places, as she can steal from the forest, under the shelter of the straggling 
timber, undetected by the gobblers, gain her nest on the prairie, and sit in peace ; 
as the gobblers at this time, poverty-stricken and ashamed of themselves, seek the 
thickest parts of the woods to hide in, and rarely then venture into the open. 
But, poor or fat, whenever the cock finds a nest he breaks it up, and he never 
neglects to break the skulls of all the young chicks he comes across. 
The chicks when hatched are very small, and covered with a more hairy 
covering than the down which young tame turkeys have. If the season be a dry 
one they thrive very fast, as insect food is abundant ; but whenever it is a wet 
season the young ones ^ fare but middling,’ as they are particularly tender, and 
are easily killed by damp and chilly weather. Upon the dryness of the season, 
therefore, the turkey-hunter builds his hopes of the plentifulness of his game. 
‘‘By October the young birds have become nearly full-grov/n, and able to take 
care of themselves; the hens have’ recovered the flesh which they had lost by sit- 
ting, whilst leading their young in pursuit of the myriads of grasshoppers which 
swarm on a southern prairie during the summer ; and the gobblers having picked up 
their good condition by feeding upon wild grapes, blackberries, mulberries, nuts, 
grubs, and the thousand-and-one treasures scattered in the forest, and so, ail feeling 
strong and fat, they gradually join their forces and form ‘ gangs,’ as the back- 
woodsmen call them, often consisting of a hundred individuals or more in each 
gang. From this ‘ gathering of the clans,’ October is named the ‘ Turkey 
month’ by the Indians, 
“ At this season the turkeys wander over a great extent of country in search 
of ‘ mast,’ remaining in one place only so long as the acorns, pecan nuts, and 
other food remains plentiful ; and VvFen that is exhausted they move on in 
search of more, rarely rising unless they have a river to cross, or are flushed by a 
hunter’s dog, or by wolves, foxes, wild cats, &c. When the river to be crossed is 
a very wide one, such as the Mississippi, they often spend a day or two upon its 
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