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


Oct