BREAST SPONGE--SHREWDNESS
Nature has provided the old gobbler with a very useful appendage.
Audubon calls it the "breast sponge," and it covers the entire upper
part of the breast and crop-cavity. This curious arrangement consists
of a thick mass of cellular tissue, and its purpose is to act as a
reservoir to hold surplus oil or fat. It is quite interesting to
study its function, and it is a very important one for the gobbler.
This appendage is not found on the hen or yearling gobbler. At the
beginning of the gobbling season, about March 1st, this breast sponge
is full of rich, sweet fat, and the gobbler is plump in flesh; but
as the season advances and he continues to gobble, strut, and worry
the hens, his plumpness is reduced, and finally the bird becomes
emaciated and lean. Often during the whole day he gobbles and struts
about, making love to the hens, and at this time he eats almost
nothing, being kept alive largely by drawing on his reservoir of fat.
As the gobbler begins to grow lean, his flesh becomes rank and wholly
unfit for food, and one should never be killed at this time. It is a
fact that the young male turkeys gobble but seldom, if at all, the
first year. Neither do these young birds possess the breast sponge,
or reservoir to hold fat, and consequently they are unfit to mate
with the hens. The hens visit the males every day or alternate days;
consequently, if among the gobblers there are no mature birds, the
eggs laid are not fertile. I wish every hunter, sportsman, and farmer
could read these lines, and recognize the importance of sparing at
least one of the adult male turkeys in each locality. The benefit of
such a policy would soon be apparent in the increase of the turkeys.
I dwell at length on this point in order to make clear the necessity
of sparing some old gobblers in each section.
It has frequently been stated that the wild turkey will not live and
propagate within the haunts of man. This depends upon how the birds
are treated. No bird or animal can survive eternal persecution. There
is no trouble about the birds thriving in a settled community, if the
proper territory is set apart for their use, and proper protection
given. The territory should consist of a few acres of woodland, or of
some broken ground, thicket, or swamp to afford a little cover. In
such a retreat, a trio of wild turkeys may be turned loose, and in a
few years, if properly protected, the vicinity would be stocked with
them.
I have ample evidence that wild turkeys will not shrink from
civilization. It is the trapping, snaring, baiting, and killing of
all old gobblers that decimates their numbers, not the legitimate
hunting by sportsmen.
[Illustration: Note the full chest of the gobbler on the left.
This is the breast sponge. (Photographed in March)]
The shrewdness of the turkey is shown by his having no fear of the
peaceable farmer at the plow, no more than the crow or the blackbird
has. The wild turkey will go into the open field and glean food
from the stubble or upturned furrows in full view of the plowman.
This I have often seen, and I will cite one incident of this kind,
which came under my observation some time ago when hunting in the
State of Mississippi. It was a clear, beautiful morning in the month
of March. Three old turkeys were gobbling in different directions,
along a creek in a swamp, which was about half a mile wide, with
fields on each side. Having selected the one I thought the oldest
and biggest, I approached it as near as I dared; then, hiding myself
in the brush, I began to call. In a short time the other two birds
quit gobbling and came quickly to the call, while the one I had
chosen continued his gobbling, but in the same place as when first
heard. Suddenly I heard "_Put-put_" directly behind me; turning my
head, I saw, within twenty paces of me, a fine gobbler. "_Put_"--then
he was gone. This caused the one gobbling in front of me to become
suspicious. He refused to come an inch nearer, and, having heard that
alarm, "_put_," he began to make a detour in order to gain a certain
heavily wooded ridge. To do this, without getting too near the spot
where he heard the warning cry of his comrade, he had to go over a
high rail fence, going through a part of the field just plowed up,
while the plowman was there at work in his shirt sleeves, not over
one hundred yards away and in full view of the gobbler. The man was
moving all the time and frequently holloaing to his mules, "Whoa,"
"Gee," or "Haw," in such a loud voice that one could hear him a
long distance. The turkey would gobble every time the plowman would
holloa. He appeared to be perfectly fearless of the plowman, but was
employing all his sagacity to avoid the spot where I was. I could not
understand this at first, but discovered the reason a little later.
The bird had reached the field and was flanking me, but I could not
see it on account of the undergrowth. I rose, and by making a detour
of about two hundred yards around the angle of the field, keeping
well in the woods, I finally discovered the gobbler striding sedately
across the field between me and the plowman, who was busily engaged
in attending to his furrows, still loudly holloaing from time to
time. The gobbler at intervals stopped, strutted, gobbled, and then
proceeded on its way. Seeing that I could get no nearer to him, I
waited until he was about to cross the fence, when I dropped by a
stump, lifted my rifle, and waited for him to mount the fence. This
he was some time in doing, but I finally heard the _flop, flop_,
when his fine form with long, pendent beard was seen broadside on by
me on the top rail, about eighty-five yards away. In a second the
bead of my rifle covered the spot at the wing, and, as I fired, the
bird tumbled dead into the field. It was a grand old specimen, and
on examining it dry blood was discovered where a buckshot had passed
through its leg. There was another shot across the rump, and a third
had creased the back of the neck near the head. In my opinion, the
bird hearing the "_put-put_" of the gobbler who came up behind me
suspected a hidden enemy, and, having lately been wounded, thought it
best to give suspicious places a wide berth.
There are thousands of acres in the South which were once cultivated,
but which are now abandoned and growing up with timber, brush, and
grass. Such country affords splendid opportunity for the rearing and
perpetuation of the wild turkey. These lands are vastly superior for
this purpose than are the solid primeval forests, inasmuch as they
afford a great variety of summer food, such as green, tender herbage,
berries of many kind, grasshoppers by the million, and other insects
in which the turkeys delight. Such a country also affords good
nesting retreats, with brier-patches and straw where the nest may
be safely hidden, and where the young birds may secure safe hiding
places from animals and birds of prey; but alas! at present not from
trappers, baiters, and pot hunters. Check these, and the abandoned
plantations of the South would soon be alive with turkeys.