TURKEYS. 
103 
will still retain its original habits ; and it is not 
improbable, that, if left to themselves, the descend- 
ants of onr tame ones would in time resume the 
wild habits of their forefathers, like those which 
we have above mentioned, abounding near the Black 
Sea. 
We are not, indeed, without instances of wild 
Turkeys, at this day, in our own country, and a 
curious anecdote has reached us of a friendship 
taking place between a flock of these birds and a 
Partridge. It occurred at Tyninghame in Scotland, 
where there is a breed of Turkeys, which never enter 
into the poultry-house or yard, but roost in the trees, 
and live chiefly on beech-mast, and anything else they 
can pick up, though they are tame enough to come 
about the house to be fed, in the time of frost and snow. 
About eight or ten years ago, a cock Partridge, full 
grown, suddenly joined himself to the flock of these 
Turkeys, and remained with them constantly during 
the whole Summer, Autumn, and Winter ; at night 
he slept under the trees in which they roosted ; in 
the day he fed with them, and was not the least 
frightened or disturbed by people walking among 
them. He took great liberties with the old Turkey- 
cock ; when he saw him going to pick up a worm 
or any seed, he used to run under him between his 
legs, and snatch it out of his mouth, the Turkey- 
cock never resenting the indignity. Early in the 
Spring he left them, as it was supposed, to find him- 
self a mate for the pairing-season. But, in the 
beginning of Autumn, he rejoined his old friends, 
and continued with them as formerly until the next 
