mould, and some of a copper colour, both sorts very good. The land in some places is much burthen'd with iron-stone, here being great store of it seemingly very good; the eviling springs, which are many in these parts, issuing out of the rocks. When we were all asleep, in the beginning of the night, we were awaken'd with the dismall'st and most hideous noise that ever pierc'd my ears this sudden surprizal incapacitated us of guessing what this threatning noise might proceed from; but our Indian pilot (who knew these parts very well) acquainted us, that it was customary to hear such musick along that swamp-side, there being endless numbers of panthers, tygers, wolves, and other beasts of prey, which take this swamp for their abode in the day, coming in whole droves to hunt the deer in the night, making this frightful ditty 'till day appears, then all is still as in other places.

66

The next day it prov'd a small drisly rain, which is rare, there happening not the tenth part of foggy-falling weather towards these mountains, as visits those parts. Near the sea-l ea-board, the Indian kill'd fifteen turkeys this day, there coming out of the swamp (about sun-rising) flocks of these fowl, containing several hundreds in a gang, who feed upon the acorns, it being most oak that grow in these woods. There are but very few pines in those quarters.

66

Early the next morning, we set forward for the Congeree Indians, parting with that delicious prospect. By the way, our guide killed more turkeys, and two pol-cats, which he eat, esteeming them before fat turkeys. Some of the turkeys which we eat while we stay'd there, I believe, weigh'd no less than forty pounds.

"The land we pass'd over this day, was most of it good, and the worst passable. At night we kill'd a possum, being cloy'd with turkeys, made a dish of that, which tasted much between young pork and veal; their fat being as white as any I ever

saw.

"Our Indian this day kill'd good store of provision with his gun: he always shot with a single ball, missing but two shoots in about forty, they being curious artists in managing a gun, to make it carry either ball or shot true. When they have bought a piece, and find it to shoot any ways crooked, they take the barrel out of the stock, cutting a notch in a tree, wherein they set it streight, sometimes shooting away above 100 loads of ammunition before they bring the gun to shoot according to their mind. We took up our quarters by a fish-pond side; the pits in the woods that stand full of water naturally breed fish in them, in great quantities. We cook'd our supper, but having neither bread or salt, our fat turkeys began to be loathsome to us, although we

were never wanting of a good appetite, yet a continuance of one diet made us weary.

Audubon says that the unsettled parts of the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana, an immense extent of country to the north-west of these districts, upon the Mississippi and Missouri, and the vast regions drained by these rivers from their con fluence to Louisiana, including the wooded parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama, are the most abundantly supplied with the wild turkey. It is, he adds, less plentiful in Georgia and the Carolinas, becomes still scarcer in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and is now very rarely seen to the eastward of the last-mentioned States. In the course of his rambles through Long Island, the State of New York, and the country around the lakes, he did not meet with a single individual, although he was informed that some exist in those parts. They are still to be found along the whole line of the Alleghany Mountains, where they have become so wary as to be approached only with extreme difficulty, according to the same author, who, when in the Great Pine Forest in 1829, íound a single feather that had been dropped from the tail of a female, but saw no bird of the kind. Farther eastward, he does not think they are now to be found.† Not much more than a century and a quarter has elapsed between the dates of these two accounts, and yet we see how much the area over which the species was formerly spread, is already circumscribed.

The following graphic description of the habits of the wild turkey, by the enthusiastic American ornithologist, will be read with interest ::-

"The turkey is irregularly migratory, as well as irregularly gregarious. With reference to the first of these circumstances, I have to state that, whenever the mast of one portion of the country happens greatly to exceed that of another, the turkeys are insensibly led towards that spot, by gradually meeting in their haunts with more fruit the nearer they advance towards the place where it is most plentiful. In this manner flock follows after flock, until one district is entirely deserted, while another is, as it were, overflowed by them. But as these migrations are irregular, and extend over a vast expanse of country, it is necessary that I should describe the manner in which they take place.

* A History of Carolina, &c. By John Lawson, Gent., Surveyor-General of North Carolina. London, 1714, small 4to. p. 25, et seq.

+ Ornithological Biography. London, 1831, 8vo.

In America the term mast is not confined to the fruit of the beech, but is used as a general name for all kinds of forest fruits, including even grapes and berries. (Audubon.)

About the beginning of October, when scarcely any of the seeds and fruits have yet fallen from the trees, these birds assemble in flocks, and gradually move towards the rich bottom lands of the Ohio and Mississippi. The males, or as they are more commonly called, the gobblers, associate in parties of from ten to a hundred, and search for food apart from the females, while the latter are seen either advancing singly, each with its brood of young, then about two-thirds grown, or in connexion with other families, forming parties often amounting to seventy or eighty individuals, all intent on shunning the old cocks, which, even when the young birds have attained this size, will fight with, and often destroy them by repeated blows on the head. Old and young, however, all move in the same course, and on foot, unless their progress be interrupted by a river, or the hunter's dog force them to take wing. When they come upon a river, they betake themselves to the highest eminences, and there often remain a whole day, or sometimes two, as if for the purpose of consultation. During this time the males are heard gobbling, calling, and making much ado, and are seen strutting about, as if to raise their courage to a pitch befitting the emergency. Even the females and young assume something of the same pompous demeanour, spread out their tails, and run round each other, purring loudly, and performing extravagant leaps. At length, when the weather appears settled, and all around is quiet, the whole party mounts to the tops of the highest trees, whence, at a signal, consisting of a single cluck, given by a leader, the flock takes flight for the opposite shore. The old and fat birds easily get over, even should the river be a mile in breadth; but the younger and less robust frequently fall into the water,-not to be drowned, however, as might be imagined. They bring their wings close to their body, spread out their tail as a support, stretch forward their neck, and striking out their legs with great vigour, proceed rapidly towards the shore; on approaching which, should they find it too steep for landing, they cease their exertions for a few moments, float down the stream until they come to an accessible part, and by a violent effort, generally extricate themselves from the water. It is remarkable that, immediately after thus crossing a large stream, they ramble about for some time as if bewildered. In this state they fall an easy prey to the hunter.

When the turkeys arrive in parts where the mast is abundant, they separate into smaller flocks, composed of birds of all ages and both sexes promiscuously mingled, and devour all before them. This happens ahout the middle of November. So gentle do they sometimes become after these long journeys, that they have been seen to approach the farm-houses, associate with the

domestic fowls, and enter the stables and corn-fields in quest of ood. In this way roaming about the forests and feeding chiefly on masts, they pass the autumn and part of the winter."*

In February-sweet St. Valentine!-the scene is changed. "The females separate and fly from the males. The latter strenuously pursue, and begin to gobble, or to utter notes of exultation. The sexes roost apart, but at no great distance from each other. When a female utters a call-note, all the gobblers within hearing return the sound, rolling note after note with as much rapidity as if they intended to emit the last and the first togeher, not with spread tail, as when fluttering round the females on the ground, or practising on the branches of the trees on which they have roosted for the night, but much in the manner of the domestic turkey when an unusual or unexpected noise elicits its singular hubbub. If the call of the female comes from the ground, all the males immediately fly towards the spot, and the moment they reach it, whether the hen be in sight or not, spread out and erect their tail, draw the head back on the shoulders, depress their wings with a quivering motion, and strut pompously about, emitting at the same time a succession of puffs from the lungs, and stopping now and then to listen and look. But whether they spy the female or not, they continue to puff and strut, moving with as much celerity as their ideas of ceremony seem to admit. While thus occupied the males often encounter each other, in which case desperate battles take place, ending in bloodshed, and often in the loss of many lives, the weaker falling under the repeated blows inflicted upon their heads by the stronger."+

This union of love and war, this ominous conjunction of Mars and Venus, seems to be a necessary condition of animal life. The females calmly look on and await the event of the struggle which is to be settled by the law of the strongest, who reaps the reward of his prowess. Thus a sturdy progeny is secured, and Nature does all in her power to prevent the species from dwindling.

In the delightful book last quoted there is a fund of turkey entertainment for any lover of natural history. There may he read how hens associate, probably for their mutual safety, deposit their eggs in the same nest, and rear their broods together, the common nest being watched by one of the females against the crow, the raven, and the pole-cat; how to prevent the effects of rainy weather, the mother, like a skilful physician, plucks the buds of the spice-wood bush and gives them to her young; how they are hunted with the slow turkey-hound, and how they are caught in pens; and how, of the numerous enemies of the wild turkey,

* Ornithological Biography. vol. 1., p. 2.

+ Ibid, p. 3.

the most formidable, excepting man, are the lynx, the snowy owl, and the Virginian owl. None but an eye-witness could have described the following attack and defence:—

"When attacked by the two large species of owls above mentioned, they often effect their escape in a way which is somewhat remarkable. As turkeys usually roost in flocks on naked branches of trees, they are easily discovered by their enemies the owls, which, on silent wing, approach and hover around them, for the purpose of reconnoitring. This, however, is rarely done without being discovered, and a single cluck from one of the turkeys announces to the whole party the approach of the murderer. They instantly start upon their legs, and watch the motions of the owl, which, selecting one as its victim, comes down upon it like an arrow, and would inevitably secure the turkey, did not the latter at that moment lower its head, stoop, and spread its tail in an inverted manner over its back, by which action the aggressor is met by a smooth inclined plane, along which it glances without hurting the turkey; immediately after which the latter drops to the ground, and thus escapes merely with the loss of a few feathers."*

But who imported the bird into Europe, and when was it introduced?

These are more difficult questions.

We do not find the turkey in the list of the goodly provision made for the intronization of George Nevell, Archbishop of York, in the reign of Edward IV.; nor does it appear in the "Regulations of the Household of the fifth Earl of Northumberland begun in 1512," but long before the date of the oldest of the books on Virginia and Carolina above mentioned, the bird was common in the farm-yards of Europe.

"Sebastian Cabot," or Sebastian Gabato," a Genoese son, born in Bristow, sett forth from that town, and made great discoveries, in the thirteenth year of Henry VII.'s reign, that is, in 1498. Other calendars make the time 1499 or 1497.† But the voyage was deemed unprofitable, and we find that the king, in 1500, probably stimulated by the success of the Spaniards and Portuguese, granted letters patent to Richard Warde, John Thomas, and John Farnandus, empowering them to make voyages of discovery and conquest. Nothing, however, seems to have been done; and again letters patent, A.D. 1502, were granted to the same persons and others, containing a licence in the king's name

* Ornithological Biography, I., p. 8.

† Sebastian, together with his two brothers, had been previously included in a patent bearing date the 5th of March, 1496, granted by Henry VII. to his father John, for the discovery and conquest of unknown lands.