THE POULTRY ROOK. 
277 
When the birds are sickly they are easily cured by making them svv allow a 
pej^percorn, their hills being carefully opened to avoid hurting them. 
Some authors advise the letting out of these birds when the weather is fine; 
but when following this advice, I have lost so many that I have given it up 
altogether. I have since left them in their garrets till they had put forth the red, 
which occurs in from six weeks to two months, taking care to give them as much 
air as possible ; and from that time I have not lost one. During the crisis of 
putting forth the red — that is, the red protuberances of the head and neck — I 
again give the little turkeys stimulating food, consisting of bread minced with 
onions and nettles or parsley. When this is past, the turkeys are as robust as 
previously they were delicate, and stand all weather ; now is the time to let them 
out to the open country, where they feed themselves on all sorts of herbs and 
insects, of v/hich they are so fond that in Switzerland they are made to folloAV the 
plough for the purpose of destroying the turned-up larval of cockchafers. 
‘‘In order to fatten them, I have only to shut them up in a court for two or 
three weeks, feeding them on meal soaked in water, boiled potatoes, and .maize, 
avoiding oleaginous seeds, because these communicate their oily flavour to the flesh 
of the birds.” 
To these directions of Mr. Trotter and Dr. Sacc, we would only add a strong 
recommendation to our readers to employ that admirable ombination of egg and 
milk, recommended by Mr. Douglas in the chapter on Coloured Dorkings (page 88). 
Animal food is required by young turkeys that are prevented from ranging, and 
there is no form in which it can be given at all approaching in nutritive value and 
easy digestibility to the custard prepared as dmected. Wo speak from personal 
experience, and can positively aflirm that it is the most successful artificial food 
ever devised for young gallinaceous birds, deprived of a free range and natural 
insect food. 
The varieties of the Turkey are — the Norfolk or Black, and the Cambridge, the 
colours of which vary very much, the prevailing hues being grey or bronze, the 
latter varying from a light copper-colour to a very dark tint, v/hich is generally 
preferred. 
Many of these dark birds are exhibited as American or cross-bred American 
turkeys, under the idea that they are the pure or half-bred wild North American 
species ; but, as wo have previously demonstrated, this statement has no foundation 
in fact. 
The White are very elegant, and though the most tender of all to rear, are 
not so in anything like the same degree as the white peafowl. It is well known 
that most birds, wild as well as tame, occasionally produce perfectly white 
individuals of more delicate constitution than their parents. There can be no 
doubt that the selection and pairing of such is . the way in which the breed of 
white turkeys has been established and kept up. However, with all care, they will 
now and then “cry back,” and produce speckled or pied birds; and so show a 
tendency to return to their normal plumage. It is remarkable that in specimens 
