Gander Hissing at an Enemy
In England the goose is often roasted for the Christmas dinner, as the turkey is with us, and the gizzards, heads and legs are sold in sets, under the name of "giblets," to be used for pies. Goose liver has long been a dainty dish. It is made in Strasburg to grow very large by keeping the geese in a room at high temperature. In this state it is sold as a great delicacy under the French name of pâté de foie gras ("pasty of fat liver").
THE TURKEY AND THE GUINEA FOWL
So far we have had to do with birds and beasts of foreign birth. As men from abroad have peopled our cities, so animals from abroad have peopled our fields, and we have not as yet met with one true American in the list.
It is lucky that I have a native American to offer you, and one that is in some ways the finest of all our birds of the farm. This is the Turkey, the largest of them all and the choicest when roasted and served upon the table. We may well ask, what would a Christmas dinner be like without this noble bird to fill the place of honor?
There are wild turkeys still in our woods, though the bullets of the hunter have left few of those once found there. These wild birds have certain odd habits well worth speaking of. Thus the male birds keep away from the females during a great part of the year, going about in flocks of from ten to a hundred, and feeding on grain, seeds, fruits, insects, tadpoles, lizards and such small game. The females go about singly or in flocks with their young. They take care to keep away from the old males, which have a bad habit of killing and eating the young.
Turkeys roost in trees but make their nests on the ground, laying from ten to twenty eggs before setting. These are much larger than the egg of the hen. The wild turkeys have small wings and are poor flyers, so that when they try to cross a river a mile wide many give out and fall into the water. But they usually manage to swim ashore.
There are two species of wild turkey in America, one native to the United States and Mexico and one found in Central America. The latter is somewhat smaller than our home bird but is finer in color, its feathers being of a beautiful metallic-green or bronze color, with hues of black, gold and sky color. The male turkey has a habit much like that of the peacock. He spreads his large tail upward like a fan, while his wings are made to trail on the ground. In this way he struts round and round with great dignity, giving vent at times to a loud "gobble, gobble," an odd sound of his own.