WILD TURKEY. 
339 
are often observed in the oak woods near Pliilipsburg, Clear- 
field county. Those occasionally brought to the Philadelphia 
and New York markets^ are chiefly obtained in Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey, 
The wild turkeys do not confine themselves to any particu- 
lar food ; they eat maize, all sorts of berries, fruits, grasses, 
beetles ; and even tadpoles, young frogs, and lizards, are oc- 
casionally found in their crops ; but where the pecan nut is 
plenty, they prefer that fruit to any other nourishment ; their 
more general predilection is, however, for the acorn, on which 
they rapidly fatten. When an unusually profuse crop of acorns 
is produced in a particular section of country, great numbers 
of turkeys are enticed from their ordinary haunts in the sur- 
rounding districts. About the beginning of October, while 
the mast still remains on the trees, they assemble in flocks, and 
direct their course to the rich bottom lands. At this season 
they are observed in great numbers on the Ohio and Missis- 
sippi. The time of this irruption is known to the Indians by 
the name of the turkey month. 
The males, usually termed gobblers^ associate in parties, 
numbering from ten to a hundred, and seek their food apart 
from the females ; whilst the latter either move about singly 
with their young, then nearly two-thirds grown, or, in com- 
pany with other females and their families, form troops, some- 
times consisting of seventy or eighty individuals, all of whom 
are intent on avoiding the old males, who, whenever oppor- 
tunity offers, attack and destroy the young, by repeated blows 
on the skull. All parties, however, travel in the same direc- 
tion, and on foot, unless they are compelled to seek their 
individual safety by flying from the hunter's dog, or their 
march is impeded by a large river. When about to cross a 
river, they select the highest eminences,' that their flight may 
,be the more certain ; and here they sometimes remain for a 
day or more, as if for the purpose of consultation, or to be duly 
prepared for so hazardous a voyage. During this time the 
males gobble obstreperously, and strut with extraordinary im- 
