WILD TURKEY. 
345 
rise from the eggs, look anxiously towards them, chuck with 
a sound peculiar to the mother on such an occasion, remove 
carefully each half empty -shell, and with her bill caress and 
dry the younglings, that already stand tottering and attempt- 
ing to force their way out of the nest.” 
When the process of incubation is ended, and the mother 
is about to retire from the nest with her young brood, she 
shakes herself violently, picks and adjusts the feathers about 
the belly, and assumes a different aspect ; her eyes are alter- 
nately inclined obliquely upwards and sidewise ; she stretches 
forth her neck, in every direction, to discover birds of prey or 
other enemies ; her wings are partially sprfead, and she softly 
clucks to keep her tender offspring close to her side. They 
proceed slowly, and, as the hatching generally occurs in the 
afternoon, they sometimes return to pass the first night in the 
nest. While very young, the mother leads them to elevated 
dry places, as if aware that humidity, during the first few days 
of their life, would be very dangerous to them, they having 
then no other protection than a delicate, soft, hairy down. In 
very rainy seasons wild turkeys are scarce, because, when 
completely wetted, the young rarely survive. 
At the expiration of about two weeks, the young leave the 
ground on which they had previously reposed at night under 
the female, and follow her to some low, large branch of a tree, 
where they nestle under the broadly curved wings of their 
vigilant and fostering parent. The time then approaches in 
which they seek the open ground or prairie land during the 
day, in search of sbawberries, and subsequently of dewberries, 
blackberries, and grasshoppers ; thus securing a plentiful food, 
and enjoying the influence of the genial sun. They frequently 
dust themselves in shallow cavities of the soil, or on ant-hills, 
in order to clean off the loose skin of their growing feathers, 
and rid themselves of ticks and other vermin. 
The young turkeys now grow rapidly, and in the month of 
August, when several broods flock together, and are led by 
their mothers to the forest, they are stout and quite able to 
