Identifier: wildturkeyitshu00mcil (find matches)
Title: The wild turkey and its hunting
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: McIlhenny, Edward Avery, 1872-1949 Jordan, Charles L., d. 1909 Shufeldt, Robert W. (Robert Wilson), 1850-1934
Subjects: Turkeys
Publisher: Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday, Page & company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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e is a gay Lothario and willcovet and steal his neighbors wives and daugh-ters ; and if his neighbors protest, will fight to thefinish. He is artful, cunning, and sly, at thesame time a stupendous fool. One day no artcan persuade him to approach you, no matterhow persuasively or persistently you call; thenext day he will walk boldly up to the gun atthe first call and be shot. He has no senti-ment beyond a dudish and pompous admirationfor himself, and he covets every hen he sees.He will stand for hours in a small sunny place,striving to attract the attention of the hens bystrutting, gobbling, blowing, and whining, untilhe nearly starves to death. I believe he wouldalmost rather be dead than to have a cloudy day,when he is deprived of seeing the sun shiningon his glossy plumage; and if it rains, he is themost disconsolate creature on the face of theearth. The methods employed by the wild turkeyhen in nesting and rearing a family do not differmaterially from those of the tame turkey. The
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SOCIAL RELATIONS — NESTING 113 nest itself is a simple affair, fashioned as if madein a hurry, and consists of a depression scratchedin the earth to fit her body comfortably, then a fewdry leaves are scratched in to line the excavation.Again, the nest may be under an old fallen tree-top or tussock of tall grass, or beside an old log,against which sundry brush, leaves, and grasshave drifted, or in an open stubble field orprairie. There is one precaution the hen neverneglects, however slovenly the nest is built; thisis to completely cover her eggs with leaves orgrass on leaving the nest. This is done to protectthem from predaceous beasts and birds, partic-ularly from that ubiquitous thief and villain,the crow. The eggs, usually from eight to fifteen in num-ber, are quite pointed at one end, a little smallerthan the eggs of the domesticated turkey, show-ing considerable variation in size and shape. Incolor they are uniform cream, sometimes yellow-ish, and, when quite fresh, with a deci

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