THE WILD TURKEY. 197 



and when surprised the motion of the wings is so 

 rapid as to produce a peculiar whistling sound. They 

 are constant residents of the Middle and Southern 

 States, and during the Winter become very tame and 

 sociable, sometimes resorting to the barn-yard, and 

 feeding in company with the poultry. 



Through the Pigeons we pass readily from the 

 Insessores to the Gallinse. This order comprises the 

 well-known Wild Turkey, the Partridges, the Grouse, 

 Pheasant, Guinea-fowl, etc. 



The Wild Turkey, once so abundant in that part 

 of the country lying between the Alleghanies and 

 the Mississippi river, appears now to have become 

 quite a scarce, shy, and in some places an obsolete 

 bird. Like the poor Red Man who once roamed un- 

 restrained through the same trackless woods, the 

 march of civilization has encroached upon its free- 

 dom. And as the Indian has folded his blanket and 

 gradually retired before the irresistible step of the 

 avaricious white man, to the plains of the Far West, 

 so this noblest game of the forest has taken its flight 

 from haunts where once the murderous gun was sel- 

 dom heard to echo, to nestle among the secluded 

 wilds west of the Mississippi. Straggling companies, 

 however, still remain in the yet unsettled parts of 

 Pennsylvania, New York, and several of the Western 

 States, though only relics of what was formerly a 

 numerous and powerful tribe. 



The Wild Turkey, from its weight and bulky pro- 

 portions, is essentially a terrestrial bird ; its food con- 

 sists of the fruits of forest trees, which it searches 

 17* 



