82 
WILD TURKEY. 
females; whilst the latter either move about singly with their 
young, then nearly two-thirds grown, or, in company with other 
females and their families, form troops, sometimes consisting of 
seventy 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 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 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 dexterously 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 bank, their exertions 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 
