extreme, for they are often exceeded, although a thirty-twopound turkey is a large bird.

The Narragansett turkey has a striking plumage. The feathers of the neck, back, breast and body may be described as deep black, terminating with a broad lightgray band margined with black. The large wings have black bows, which show a bronzy luster in the sunshine; the flight feathers, including both primaries and secondaries, are black, or nearly black, barred with white or gray; and the wings, when folded, show two distinct narrow bars across them. The tail feathers are black, barred irregularly with brown, and end in a broad black band margined with white or gray, generally a very light gray. The shanks and toes are, in color, a deep salmon or brown. The plumage of both sexes is the same, except that the plumage of the male is more distinct in its markings and deeper in color. The female is the lighter colored specimen, its gray being usually of a paler shade.

This coloring makes the Narragansett a distinguished looking bird. The contrast between its black and its gray causes the markings to stand out well, and the effect is extremely pleasing to the eye. There are not wanting those who believe that this coloration is really more beautiful than that of the magnificent Bronze, with its richer lines and more abundant luster.

The size of the variety and its attractive coloring are sufficient reasons for a desire to have it more extensively bred than it is. It has a sufficient degree of hardiness and the other practical qualities, to warrant a renewed interest in one of the best varieties of the turkey. It cer tainly ought to become more common in its original home, and not allow so many birds really inferior to it to occupy its place.

The Narragansetts are not so large as the Mammoth Bronze. Their plumage is a metallic black, each feather terminating in a broad. light steel-gray band, edged with

plack. These birds are popular in southern New England, where they are extensively grown for the city markets. They are hardy and as easily reared as the Mammoth Bronze. The Narragansetts have thick set, plump bodies, and short legs, are quick growers, mature early, and do not roam as far from home as Bronze turkeys.

THE BRUSH TURKEY.

BY FRANKLANE L. SEWELL.

In the zoological gardens of London, the Brush turkey has made its nest, as it does in its wild state, by construct ing a crude mound of earth, leaves, grass, sand, and other materials that were at hand, which, by fermentation, becomes heated. The eggs are deposited therein. Instead of a mother turkey on her nest, the picture of patience, is to be seen the female in apparent carelessness strolling about the inclosure. The cock seems the most interested, and by far the busier one of the pair. Not a sign of herbage, not even a straw, is to be seen on the ground of their runway, except what is contained in the mound. The male bird, for it is he who constructs the mound nest and keeps it constantly in correct condition, has apparently worn and torn every bit of herbage from the ground, in his dragging and scratching materials toward the huge pile, which is about five feet high and eight or more feet across the base.

While I stood sketching these strange birds, the male nervously ran to and from the mound, once in a while scratching the materials at the base towards the top, and several times I saw him peck at and drive the female from the place, as if in fear she might disturb something. The superintendent of the gardens, in a very interesting account of the Brush turkey, says that when the young are hatched they creep from the mound, stout and strong, ready to care for themselves, and on the second or third day are capable of dight; that they are quite unnoticed by

either of the parent birds and apparently careless of each other, hunting their own food, and each selecting, regardless of the others, his shelter or roosting place for the night. These birds apparently have no relationship to the true American turkey, but are inserted here as a matter of interest.

THE BEST BREED.

The Bronze turkeys are at present the favorites with the majority of those who grow turkeys for the market. Size and hardiness are the important factors which cause this favoritism. Sometimes private customers prefer white- or yellow-skinned ones, just as they prefer yellowlegged chickens. Boston has made the present taste in New England, which decidedly prefers yellow-legged chickens, and though the preference is not emphatic for the skin of White Hollands, yet, doubtless, it is because it is difficult to obtain them. The compiler of this book has sold yellow-legged and yellow-skinned poultry at fifty per cent advance on the price of dark-legged chickens. It may be a fancy, but if you get your money, what mat ters it? By persisting in raising white turkeys for the New England market for a series of years, a demand may be made for them. Outside of New England, unless we may except the Philadelphia market, the color of the skin and legs of a fowl or turkey receives but little consideration.

COMMON TURKEYS.

By "common" turkeys is meant mongrels, -all sorts of breeds mixed. Too many farmers have such flocks. Get a first-rate male of the variety you want and mate him with your hens. From their progeny select the best females, and mate them with a fine male of the same breed, but not related to their sire. Pursue this course, "grading up," for two or three years, and you will have as good a flock as you need for market purposes.

INFUSING FRESH BLOOD FROM WILD TURKEYS.

[From reports of the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station, where this matter has been the object of much research and experimenting.]

"Where wild turkeys are plenty, crosses between wild and domestic birds frequently occur without design on

From photographs of stock at the Rhode Island Experiment Station.

the part of the owner of the latter. Scores of cases are recorded where a wild gobbler from the woods has taken possession of a flock of common turkeys, sometimes after first battling with and killing the domestic gobbler. The