The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-08-14
ORMTHOLOGIST ME
VALUALE INFORMATION ON THE
HEN, INCLUDING THE
HEN TURKEY

Shronlcled-Th Mental Deterioration
OF Hens and What They are Comipe to,
Copyright, 1894, by Edgar w. Nye1
AT HOME, Summer of "a.
Concluding with this the valuable
series OF information on the subject of
"Ornithology," I will pass on to speak
OF another division of the bird tribe as
made In 1S37by an ornithologist named
Bonaparte, who classified the subject
as ~"Insessores and Grallatores." He
said that all birds should be divided
into homogeneous and polygamous.
This social arrangement had never
been made before, and so his classified
ton attracted much attention.
Since writing my last treatise on or
anthology I have had some opportunity
to study especially the hen turkey and
the domestic duck.
Last week my justly celebrated well
manifested mineral qualities, so much
so that people noticed it, and as time
passed on the sulphur bouquet grew to
such an extent that I sent a man down
the we'll to gee what gave the water
this peculiar flavor. After pulling out
25 barrels OF water we came to a small
duck in the cold embrace of death.
Town a white drake called Sir Fran
els, named for Sir Francis Drake. This
beast discovered that the cistern at the
barn could be entered safely, and so he
had for the past year been in the habit
of taking a plunge there and enjoying
himself, trusting to the hired man to
the hired man to come and bail him
out when the horses where watered at
eventide. In June a new brood of lit
tie yellow ducklings came forth under
the management of a plain and COM
paratively unknown hen.
These ducklings seemed to inherit
some of the peculiarities of Sir Francis,
for n of them, seeing a glimmer of
water 1O3 feet below him one day while
strolling around the well, took a notion
to cook his little red feet in the dark
tide. He found a large knothole in the
well curb and descended deity to the
bottom.
AS he went down his whole life doubt
less, covering a period of three weeks,
was unrolled before him like a piano.
rama, and when he reached the water
his soul had quilted its little tenement
of clay. When we took him out, his
still feathers showed no signs of pain,
but he lay peacefully in the old oaken
bucket, forever at rest.
It was almost pathetic to know how
even in death he had called our atten-
ton to the fact that he was down there
all by himself. Instinct, perhaps, you
will say, but does it not almost ap-
proach actual intelligence7
The hen turkey is doubtless for her
size the most successful ornithological
ass known to science. She is poorly
fitted for a parent, as every one knows
who has studied her. She becomes
thoughtful and preoccupied in the
month of May, and you may see her
strolling off by herself at times as if
studying nature. She soon after be-
comes a nonresident, and just as you
decide that she has been yielded up as
a sacrifice to the colored revival near
by she suddenly appears on the scene
with nine small editions of herself,
each with a little Waterbury tick of
its own.
She exhibits these specimens of her
handiwork about twice and then dis
appears. She takes offense at any at
tention, though sometimes she prefers
to go up a tree for the night, leaving
her little ones in wide-eyed wonder
ment to put in the night in the grass.
At early dawn she comes down and
starts off through the wet, icy weeds
in search of food. The little chaps,
broken of their rest and heavy eyed
with loss of sleep, are dragged Is or 20
miles through the tall wet grass till
they are soaked and chilled to the
heart. Then they r given each a
hard, indigestible grasshopper or a
hunting case beetle for breakfast.
Then the hot sun comes pouring down
upon them, and when you meet the
old idiot two weeks later she has one
little bobtail, moth eaten turklet for
whom Thanksgiving could have no
horrors.
The hen turkeys morbid desire to
incubate is peculiar and powerful. She
prefers for this purpose the primeval
forest. There she selects the dead tree
top of a prime giant oak and deposits
a hatful of freckled eggs. To see her