It is the
signal to commence the adventurous passage. Together they expand their
wings and rise in the air; the stronger birds will thus cross a river a
mile wide, but some of the younger ones find it impossible to sustain
themselves so long in the air, and fall flop into the water. Serious as
this misadventure may appear, being birds of spirit, they do not give up
the attempt in despair. Closing their wings, they spread out their
broad tails, and strike away with their feet towards the bank they
desire to reach. Should they find, as is sometimes the case, that the
bank is too steep for landing, they cease their exertions and allow
themselves to float down the stream until they reach an accessible part,
when by violent efforts they manage to scramble up the banks and regain
the main body. On such occasions, should any of their human or other
enemies be on the watch for them, they are easily taken, as they are too
much exhausted to fly away and have not regained their shore legs. On
landing also they do not appear at first to know what direction to take,
and are seen rambling about, sometimes up the stream, sometimes down it,
or making an uncertain run inland. Of all the birds of America, the
turkey deserves the pre-eminence: the plumage, a golden bronze, banded
with black, and shot with violet, green, and blue, is beautiful in the
extreme. We had scarcely done admiring our captive, when Peter returned
with two large baskets, into one of which the hen turkey was trundled in
spite of the fierce use she made of her beak and claws, while her brood,
who were too much bewildered to run away, were caught and secured in the
other. We returned home with our unwilling captives. Uncle Denis at
once had a pen put up, and in a few days the young turkeys appeared
perfectly reconciled to their lot, and Uncle Denis succeeded in
domesticating them: as for the old hen, one day early in the following
spring, a loud "gobbling" being heard in the distance, she, leaping up
on a pailing, spread her wings and flew away in the direction from
whence the sounds came. Her brood, then more than half-grown, would
have followed her example, but their wings were cut, and down they
toppled on their backs, greatly to the amusement of Peter, as Uncle
Denis afterwards told us.

The day for our excursion to the wonderful Cave arrived, and having
breakfasted by candle-light, we set off before sunrise in a waggon,
attended by Peter and Caesar, an