The wild turkey, acknowledged to be the finest of game-birds, ranges
throughout the forests of the more temperate portions of America. It is
the parent of the valued inhabitant of our poultry-yards; and in its
wild state utters the same curious sounds which it does in captivity.
This superb bird measures about four feet in length. Its plumage,
banded with black, gleams with a golden brown hue, shot with green,
violet, and blue. Its head is somewhat small, and a portion of its neck
is covered with a naked warty bluish skin, which hangs in wattles from
the base of the bill, forming a long fleshy protuberance, with hairs at
the top.
The bird, in the States, is commonly known as Bubbling Jock, and is
called "Oocoocoo" by the Indians. The female builds her nest in some
dry, secluded spot, guarding it carefully, and never approaching it by
the same path twice in succession. When first her young are hatched,
she leads them through the woods, but returns at night to her nest.
After a time she takes them to a greater distance, and nestles them in
some secluded spot on the ground. At this time they are frequently
attacked by the lynxes, who spring upon them, knocking them over with
their paws.
The wild turkey wanders to a great distance from the place of its birth.
"About the beginning of October the male birds assemble in flocks,"
says Audubon, "and move towards the rich bottom-lands of the Ohio and
Mississippi. The females advance singly, each with its brood of young,
then about two-thirds grown, or in union with other families, forming
parties often amounting to seventy or eighty individuals--shunning the
old cocks, who, when the young birds have attained this size, will fight
with, and often destroy them by repeated blows on the head. When they
come upon a river, they betake themselves to the highest eminence, and
often remain there a whole day; for the purpose of consultation, it
would seem, the males gobbling, calling, and making much ado,--strutting
about as if to raise their courage to a pitch befitting the emergency.
At length, when all around is quiet, the whole party mount to the tops
of the most lofty trees, whence, at a signal--consisting of a single
cluck--given by the leader, the flock takes flight for the opposite
shore. On reaching it, after crossing a broad stream, they appear
totally bewildered, and easily fall a prey to the hunter, who is on the
watch for them with his dogs."