166 
MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO. 
or eighty individuals, all of whom are intent on avoiding 
the old males, who, whenever opportunity offers, attack 
and destroy the young, by repeated blows on the skull. 
All parties, however, travel in the same direction, and 
on foot, unless they are compelled to seek their indivi- 
dual 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 he 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 obstre- 
perously, and strut with extraordinary importance, as 
if they would animate their companions, and inspire 
them with the utmost degree of hardihood ; the females 
and young also assume much of the pompous air of the 
males, the former spreading their tails, and moving 
silently around. At length the assembled multitude 
mount to the tops of the highest trees, whence, at a 
signal note from a leader, the whole together wing their 
way towards the opposite shore. All the old and fat 
ones cross without difficulty, even when the river 
exceeds a mile in width; but the young, meagre, and 
weak, frequently fall short of the desired landing, and 
are forced to swim for their lives ; this they do dexter- 
ously enough, spreading their tails for a support, closing 
their wings to the body, stretching the neck forwards, 
and striking out quickly and forcibly with their legs. 
If, in thus endeavouring to regain the land, they 
approach an elevated or inaccessible hank, their exer- 
tions are remitted, they resign themselves to the stream 
for a short time, in order to gain strength, and then, with 
one violent effort, escape from the water. But in this 
attempt all are not successful ; some of the weaker, 
as they cannot rise sufficiently high in air to clear the 
bank, fall again and again into the water, and thus 
miserably perish. Immediately after the turkeys have 
succeeded in crossing a river, they for some time ramble 
about without any apparent unanimity of purpose, and 
