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BIGGEST AMERICAN BIRD The Turkey of the Woods His Habits Character and Quest How the Southern Turkey Follows the Plow Big Flocks in Tlio owner of an Alabama plantation directed me to a field saying There you will find wild turkeys following this plowman like blackbirds blackbirdsI I sat down in the edge of the woods at an end of the plowing Presently with a scraping flutter a twentypound gobbler cnme out of the woods and stalked stiffly into the field He followed along the freshly turned furrow eating grubs turning to one side and allowing the negro and his mule to pass within sixty or seventy yards of him lie gobbled when the negro spoke to the mule A crow flying over cawed and he again gobbled When the negro wordily denounced the mule for his stiffneckedness and general depravity he gobbled vehemently vehementlyA A number of other gobblers came out of the woods One turned aside to run down a grasshopper but the rest walked with dignified bearing straight for the plowed land They had burnished bronze suits dull purple heads and necks velvety black breasts and footlong gray beards They weighed from twelve to twenty pounds poundsFrom From behind the fence I watched them with a glass When they started back to the woods I tried to avoid being seen But the leading gobbler with head towering up like a young giraffe stopped looked this way and that then called Put All leaped into the air in a second sweeping about man high above the field and sailed over the tree tops topsI I could not help thinking about the shrewdness of these gobblers Hunted constantly turkeys are alert and extremely diffcult of close approach They allow no man within gunshot Yet these birds bad mental processes and sufficient daring to discover that this plowman was unarmed unarmedWhile While I was searching for wild turkey nests in Texas the suspicious actions of a crow suggested that lie too was looking for something He flew slowly over the tree tops and watched the earth closely Suddenly he veered a little for a better look then plainly bluffing flew on a short dis ¬ tance then circled back and alighted in a tree top Here be kept his eyes on a stump in the edge of an outstanding clump of pines pinesCRAFT CRAFT OF THE OLD HEN TURKEY TURKEYTie Tie bad discovered a turkey on her nest and silently impatiently Availed for her to leave it Suddenly he stopped fidgeting Evidently the hen was moving A half minute later she passed near mo in the woods eagerly picking up food The crafty crow flew straight to the eggs and had devoured three before my coming put him to flight There had been fourteen eggs These the hen had cov ¬ ered with pine straw before leaving and the crow had uncovered only those eaten eatenThe The nest was on the ground close to the stump and partly concealed by a drooping pine limb It was a shallow basinlike depression thinly lined with grass It appeared to have been hurriedly made and probably represented the work of only a few minutes Safety for the eggs requires the turkey hen in common with other birds to conceal the nest Invariably when leaving it she covers the eggs with grass leaves or weeds to conceal them from crows foxes and other eggeating ene ¬ mies and man manStealthily Stealthily she leaves her nest when going to feed Cautiously she returns to it The eggs usually number between eight and fifteen Four weeks of incubation are required requiredIn In less than half an hour the hen returned Find ¬ ing the broken eggshells she stretched herself to full height looking and listening for a minute After carrying the broken pieces into the pines and scratching leaves over them she resumed her seat upon the nest nestOn On another occasion In seating myself on a log to write up notes a turkey hen which I had not seen was frightened from her nest This was a rudely scratched depression in the log She sat with her body parallel to the log There were seventeen eggs Some nests are in or by a clump of bushes weeds or grass grassMost Most wild turkeys are hatched during May and June Of course the vain gobbler never helps in ¬ cubate the eggs nor assists in rearing the children Youngsters and mother remain together until mid ¬ winter The hen whose eggs or youngsters have been destroyed will sometimes join a hen with a family and is allowed to assist in bringing up the brood If a mother hen is killed her youngsters if found by any hen will be promptly adopted and brought up with all the best wild turkey tra ¬ ditions ditionsWAYS WAYS OF TURKEYS IN THE BIG WOODS WOODSWet Wet weather which so thins the ranks of domestic young turkeys is also deadly though less so with wild broods Lice and insect pests also take the lives of many a wild young turkey though here again the domestic species suffers more than the wild wildMany Many longtinin observers have expressed the opin ¬ ion that the wild turkey crop is about sixty per cent of the number of eggs laid If this be cor ¬ rect it is a higher average than most domestic turkey raisers attain The proportion of hens hatched exceeds the number of gobblers And the conspicuous markings and the revealing gobble great ¬ ly increased the life risk of a gobbler over a lien and are another cause of the hens so greatly out ¬ numbering gobblers The gobble is heard a mile or farther and tells every hunter within hearing where turkey may possibly be had hadIn In most localities there are few gobblers and many hens On rainy days the peacockproud gob ¬ bler mad as a wet hen instead of strutting about and gobbling as usual to let the ladies know where he is spends a dismal day under cover trying to keep his fine feathers dry Rain and dress parade do not mix Rainy weather during gobbling time may result in a slightly decreased turkey crop cropNow Now and then a gobbler may live an almost solitary life roost alone and seek food alone But the wild turkey likes the company of his kind and this head of the species is strong for strut and show During the gobbling time March April and May gobblers and bens flock together togetherOne One spring I followed an old gobbler I slept near his roosting tree which he occupied alone He gobbled about four oclock in the morning In ¬ stantly gobblers in every direction answered Alert and suspicious he flew to the ground four to five hundred feet distant and again gobbled Close to this spot he strutted and paraded for two or three hours occasionally gobbling Two or three hens came to seek him but be did not forget danger He at last spied me and hastened to other parts That night his roost was with a flock over the water a mile or more from his roost of the preceding night nightPROUD PROUD PARADING PUGNACIOUS GOBBLER GOBBLERThe The proud and parading gobbler has been a polyg ¬ amous fellow for generations At early morn some old fellow gobbles from his treetop roost Instantly there is a reply from every gobbler within hearing In regions of safety this hullabaloo of tree top gobbling may continue for half an hour But in most places the gobblers are becoming cautious and descend to the earth shortly after the first call Often all morning long the gobblers strut about giving a gobble at intervals to let local hens know their whereabouts whereaboutsThe The breast of the gobbler by midwinter or early spring carries a deposit or reservoir of fat which is consumed during the gobbling time when he is doing too much strutting and parading to search for food It will be recalled that the specm whale has literally an oil reservoir in the top of his head in which is stowed several barrels of sperm oil that he consumes during periods when he is not hunting food This food reservoir in the turkey indicates that for generations the gobbler during the spring has been too busy to eat eatDuring During gobbling strutting time gobblers are in ¬ dependent and belligerent When they fight others of the flock scamper away The fight may last two or three hours and commonly ends with the exhaus ¬ tion of one or the other Though blood may be shed neither of the combatants is likely to be severely injured Their spurs are short and com ¬ paratively harmless Generally after pecking and kicking at each other a few times the gobblers clinch by each getting a grip on the other fellows feather less neck or head Then they pull and push and twist Haruly is the clinch broken before the fight is over and during its continuance they may trample over a quarter of an acre of laud In their pulling and hauling each appears to lie lifting upward with all his might as though in hopes of throwing his combatant over his shoulder or of pullinc his head off offTim Tim gobbling season over old gobblers run to ¬ gether and cooperate in a most friendly manner and rarely do any strutting or gobbling During summer the hens are with the children gobblers by themselves Late autumn for a brief period all uiay flock together It food is not plentiful tliej wander afar in search of it and appear to know where it is most likely to be found They travel leisurely on foot As they advance flock joins flock until an impressive number are together At a stream they hesitate if not hungry collecting along the edge and in the tree tops If no log is found they fly across some starting from tree tops others from the waters edge edgeTWO TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY BIRDS IN FLOCK FLOCKMidwinter Midwinter the turkeys are commonly in three separate flocks young gobblers in one old gob ¬ blers in another and the hens and young ladies to ¬ gether in another The beard of the young gobbler appears in November But rarely does a youngster gobble and take on vaiii airs until more than a year old oldThe The largest flock of wild turkeys that I have ever seen was in northwestern Utah in autumn There must have l een two hundred and fifty They api eared in excellent health and spirits More than onehalf were that years output Evidently it had been a good local season in wild turkey world worldAt At times when all ages and sexes are running together it is likely tobe an old hen that leads the flock They time their movements so as to arrive nt that nights roosting place by sundown Rarely do they fly Possibly this would tell news to too many enemies In case they are behind time feed ¬ ing ceases and all go on a run Arriving at the roosting place each flies to its perch perchSometimes Sometimes a horned owl will alight on a limb by a solitary turkey hen between her and the tree and edge np to her with a loud Whowho The turkey moves away the owl following and repeat ¬ ing his edging arid bullying and shouting until the end of the limb is reached If the turkey flies the pursuing owl usually catches her before she alights alightsTurkeys Turkeys frequently change their roosting place This probably saves them from numerous raids by enemies jh fur feathers arid with shotguns Com ¬ monly they have a number of regular roosting places in their territory and make a change every night br two They roost two or three on a limb well up in a tall tree generally tne1 flock occupying a num ¬ ber of closely assembled trees Their preference is for trees that stand in or near the water Prob ¬ ably in these roosts their dreams are less frequently disturbed disturbedTURKEYS TURKEYS FOND OF SPRING BUDS BUDSWild Wild turkeys have a home territory that is they live through all seasons year after year in a locality Commonly this territory is less than three miles across If food is plentiful they travel but little and this mostly afoot In some mountainous localities the abundance of food in the lower part of their territory in early spring and up the slopes in early summer causes them to follow the food line arid this amounts to near migration But strictly speaking they arc resident aud not migratory birds In times of drought or other food failures they simply emigrate to new scenes where food shortage is not a problem problemOne One March I ranged Texas watching turkey ways witli a field glass By means of a boat I slipped one morning close up on a flock of thirty or more feed ¬ ing in the trees Ravenously they were devouring the spring buds Local people spoke of it as bud ¬ ding I beard the turkeys while still a quarter of a mile off Their heavy bodies were too riinch for the smaller limbs and they were almost con ¬ stantly in motion fluttering balancing or flying A number which I drifted beneath were flattened out most ungracefully on the limbs with out ¬ stretching legs neck and wings bearing on the light springy twigs as they reached here and there for buds Occasionally one fell through or overboard and the beating and booming and flopping of wings kept up a constant uproar uproarThe The next day I found this flock of all ages and sexes feeding upon a dry ridge nearly two miles distant The following afternoon I crawled close upon them while they were feeding along the edge of the extending rising backwater of a stream Wildly they threw leaves with raking backward scratches rapidly tearing up the soggy leaves and stirring square rods of surface every few minutes So definitely were they feeding in a given direction toward a roosting place that one might have trailed them by the point of scratched places Three or four turkeys were doing sentinel duty My presence was first suspected and then I was seen by a hen on rear guard She made a warning call A few seconds later she sounded a definite alarm and all legged it away through the woods woodsSurprising Surprising the flock the next day about one half the number flew some far away others alight ¬ ing in nearby tree tops Single file a number ran wildly away into the woods woodsGrasshoppers Grasshoppers arc prime turkey food these of all ages are eaten small feojt hoppy ones and the fancywinged casehardened ones If the turkey is exterminated the insect world will doubtless celebrate and multiply Every day the turkey con ¬ sumes wholesale quantities of varieties of grubs and numerous hardshelled beetles Soft berries and fruits and many kinds of hardshelled seeds and at times buds of bushes and trees are taken these especially during the brief period of swelling buds budsNUT NUT AND CEDAR FLAVORED TURKEYS TURKEYSImmediately Immediately after eating to fullness it is common for a flock of turkeys to loll dustbath or squat round in sunny places Sometimes they play They will spar with one another chase each other about do a kind of waltz and often parade about with wings upraised over their backs backsThe The habits of wild and tame turkeys arc much alike in fact anyone who is acquainted with the habits of either can pretty accurately Judge of tiie ways of the other In appearance the wild turkey Is trimmer and more slender than the tame one The tail band on the domestic species commonly is white bub on the wild ones it is likely to vary The head of the wild turkey is apt to be bluish or purple in the tame species reddish The wild and tame species cross readily and they and their hy ¬ brids sometimes flock together togetherOne One of the mast deliciously flavored wild turkeys that It even tasted had fattened on pinon nuts An ¬ other in the same locality was served me by a pros ¬ pector The first bite suggested a salad made up of cedar twigs and cedar oil This bird evidently had fattened chiefly upon cedar berries berriesMany Many people consider the wild turkey a synonym for indecision and numerous writers have called the family stupid and witless True it has weak streaks He hesitates and hesitates when not hurried and a trap with not a particle of camouflage is likely to be alluring Then too he is a stickler for old customs he is against modern ways the cus ¬ toms of his parents eveti back to the tenth genera ¬ tion are the ways for his guidance guidanceBut But the turkey is no fool He has decision and sustained watchfulness One September I lay behind a log in the mountains of southern Arkansas watching a few deer feeding out into an open A flock of turkeys came over the tree tops and alighted in the sunny grass before me The bur ¬ nished richly bronzed coats of the gobblers shone in the sunshine They looked and walked sus ¬ piciously about so that I wondered if they carried a keen nose and had scented me I watched them with my field glasses and I knew that they had not seen me To test their eyesight and alertness I raised by hand above the top of the log Im ¬ mediately a hen and a gobbler called Put Put and put they did With a whir of wings they were instantly going With rapid leg work they vanished into the woods woodsHUNTING HUNTING BIRDS WITH CAMERA AKD GUN GUNThe The turkey has some mental processes or he would hardly take advantage of the feasts uncovered by unarmed plowmen and use sentinels when feeding where the hunter is at large it may be only in ¬ stinct that causes the turkey to seek our acid ash piles and pungent active ant hills in the woods for effective dust sprays against insects bat wild tur ¬ keys are not witless witlessThe The fundamentals used by a successful wild turkey hunter would enable him to bag any big wild game I have never killed a Avild turkey But I am certain that the hunter who returns thankfully laden from a wild turkey hunt may well be doubly thankful for his feet lungs eyes and wits will have been exactingly used and bettered betteredMany Many times I have hunted the wild turkey with a doublebarreled field glass This was about as exacting and exciting as hunting the grizzly and the Bighorn with the same instrument Jetting within short range required knowledge of their territory their customs and stalking Random rambles rare ¬ ly showed them even at long range Many a flock on which I was trying my woodcraft planning to make long and close observations of their ways added to my outdoor lord by falling to cooperate They left me in possession of the other side of the field fieldI I went with a skillful turkey hunter who had tried for a large gobblcrthrough seven years in this time he had bagged a number of other gobblers and hens We rose early tramped miles hid used a turkey call ran on detours to likely places and we stalked stalkedSeveral Several times we beard the swish and roar of this old gobblers eseajijng wings two or three times weT sa Y J running ligs heneath th far off pines and oiue with i telfseupr we had a brief look at him and his crowd crowdWAYS WAYS OF TURKEYS IN THE WOODS WOODSOne One sunny afternoon when closp to the gobbler the hunter went through a varied lot of calls which were intelligently Intended to rouse the gobblers curiosity or to challenge him Then the hunter remained silent We sat near each oilier with backs against the base of a large pine Sunlight and shadow were upon the forest floor We heard foot ¬ steps of turkey approaching cautiously cautiouslyInstead Instead of the old felow there were several young gobblers Two walked along a log a dozen feet from us On spying us they stopped and looked They stretched out their necks and looked again One came close and eyed me curiously He moved his head from side to side in a puzzled manner He seemed to be thinking This is the spot where that call came from but this Is no gobbler He leaned toward me with his weight on one foot as though to kick forward with the other foot like a kangaroo Had he made the slightest movement I should have dodged But he moved slowly away with the others all talking in low tones to them ¬ selves selvesIn In leaving the woods we came close upon a flock mostly hybrids This the hunter attributed to the wild hens because of a local scarcity of wild gob ¬ blers crossing with nearby tame gobblers gobblersThe The wild turkey has managed to survive numerous wideawake enemies and has succeeded in this be ¬ cause of his native shrewdness and the ability to be alert and cautious at times when precautions aro needed neededMan Man hunts the turkey with traps nets dogs and guns wolves foxes lions cats owls crows snakes and insects by the million prey upon turkey but over two million square miles or more this bronze fellow still has a place in the sun sunThe The turkey survives in greater or less numbers jn a dozen or more states He is even plentiful in a number of localities in New Mexico Texas Arkansas Alabama Florida and Mexico His ranks arc thinning his territory diminishing and he is in danger of extermination Hunters are increasing and the sheltered regions in which he can find food and hiding are becoming fewer and smaller Yet such is the virility of this bird moderate protec ¬ tive legislation and education would not only save him but perhaps enable him to multiply Legisla tion against trapping is the chief need And this together with a few refugees would save him himWIDE WIDE RANGE OF THE BIG BIRDS BIRDSOriginally Originally the wild turkey was widely distributed It was found all over the United States except in the extreme northwestern part and abounded in regions of old Mexico Audubon speaks of buying wild turkeys in Boston markets and says that full grown ones in Kentucky markets often sold for ten cents or less I had seen the wild turkey in southern Ohio in Florida and in Kansas but had forgotten about him When I commenced exploring northern Arizona I expected first of all to see a big grizzly bear a desert coyote or some distinctive life and color But the first wild life was a wild turkey hen which dashed by pursuing a grasshop ¬ per From the edge of the woods I watched a near ¬ by flock of twenty or more all ages which were rushing grabbing and turning this way and that as they effectively fed upon the excited highjumping hoppers hoppersNo No one appears to know just how long a wild turkey may live A few have been watched for ten years and it is likely that they may live twice that long If a turkey survives the Insects the wet weather and the devouring enemies which bbset it during the first year of its life and does not meet with violent death it is likely to live to a ripe old age The turkey is the weightiest biggest American bird weighing from ten to forty pounds according to his chances chancesThe The turkey appears to have started life as an American His bones are exhibited in American fossil deposits eons old He was a wild prehistoric American His bones have been found beneath the ruins of cliff houses untold centuries of age and what appears to have been roosting places for domestic turkeys were attached to both pueblos and cliff houses The American Indian domesticated the turkey ages ago agoAbout About four hundred years ago the Spainiards in conquering Mexico found turkeys both wild and domestic Domestic turkeys were shipped to Spain and in a few years the gobble of the turkey could be heard all over Europe Then this American bird commenced to play his part in the world affairs Europeans at first mistook him for a species of African guinea and he was misnamed His pride and plumage also caused many to think he surely must familyFour be a worthy fellow of the peacock family Four hundred years of American turkey history wild and domcstic is adventurous exciting and progressive enough to make good reading The turkey lias a visible place in literature and art many a printed page he has inspired and his story has brought to our attention some of the curious customs of our broadbrimmed ancestors ancestorsThe The New England settlers it is said fell upon their knees then upon the aborignes They also found time to fall upon wild turkeys Generations ago the turkey went close to the heart of white folks ami even to this day rivals the possum in power to stir deeply the internal feelings of the colored folks So definite and sustained is the longing for this bird that it Is doubtful if any other has caused so many raids in the dark or en ¬ couraged such audacious profiteering Turkey asso ¬ ciation with all kinds of people in our country makes him allAmcrican aud democratic to the heart heartFor For turkey the big American bird of beard and bronze there are no substitutes just as good goodWe We are thankful in our hearts for turkey tradi ¬ tions The turkey is united and inseparable with Christmas and Thanksgiving and is almost certain to be among those present on every festive occasion He figures in high living He ever roosts high biit is preyed upon cailght cornered and prayed over overHe He associates with pie piety and prayers When the harvest home Is celebrated his bright ami bronzed feathers often mingle with autumns iol orrd and flying leaves and scenes where he roosted hear him gobble no more E A Mills in Saturday Evening Post
