POULTRY. 
259 
dust, in order to clear their glowing feathers of loose scales and parasitic 
vermin : deserted ants’ nests are favorite dusting-places. 
By the month of August, the young birds acquire considerable growth, 
and use their wings and legs with great vigor and readiness, so that they 
are able to escape the sudden attack of foxes, lynxes, and other beasts 
of prey, by rising quickly from the ground and mounting the tallest 
branches of trees. The young cocks now begin to show their distinctive 
characteristics, and even to utter an imperfect gobble, while the young 
hens pur and leap. Several broods flock together, and so continue 
united, till after the October migration, and through the winter, when 
the males leave the females. 
Turkeys, though extremely delicate in their infancy, become very 
hardy, and, if permitted, will roost on the highest trees, in the cold dry 
nights of winter, without suffering injury. The hen, which lays many 
eggs early in spring, sits thirty days, and covers from twelve to fifteen 
eggs. It is unnecessary for the turkey cock, as is the case with galli- 
naceous fowl, to be in constant intercourse with the hen during her period 
of laying. Two visits from him in that season are sufficient to impreg- 
nate all the eggs. She is a very steady sitter, and must be removed 
to her food and supplied with water, for she would never leave her nest. 
She wants the alertness and courage and sagacity of the common hen, 
and might be called a fool with much more propriety than the goose, 
which is an intelligent bird. The turkey hen is incapable of teaching 
her young ones how to pick up their food, on which account a poultry- 
maid should always attend them until they are reared. 
The author of “ Tabella Cibaria" proves it upon the bird that it is “ so 
stupid or timorous that if you balance a bit of straw on his head, or 
draw a line of chalk on the ground from his beak, he fancies himself 
loaded, or so bound that he will remain in the same position till hunger 
forces him to move. We made the experiment.” We never did; but 
we doubt it not, though we cannot accept it as a proof of stupidity, 
flow much wit may be necessary to balance a straw may be doubtful ; 
but gallant chanticleer has never been charged either with fear or folly, 
and yet you have only to take him from his perch, place him on the 
table by candle-light, hold his beak down to the table, and draw a line 
with chalk from it, so as to catch his eye, and there the bird will re- 
main spell-bound, till a bystander, rubbing out the line, or diverting 
his attention from it, breaks the charm. Many a fowl have we fascinated 
in our boyish days.* 
The Guinea-Fowl. — The Guinea-fowl is slightly larger than the ordi- 
nary barn-door fowl, but is inferior in size to the larger foreign breeds, 
as the Malay and Spanish ; in both aspect and character it appears to 
occupy a position between the pheasant and the turkey. Although long 
familiarized, the Guinea-fowl has never been fully domesticated, still re- 
taining much of the restlessness and shyness of its primitive feral habits. 
It is very courageous, and will not only frequently attack the turkey, 
but even prove victorious in the encounter. 
The cock and hen are so nearly alike, that it is not easy to distin- 
* “ TabcUa Cibaria. 
