HOMES NEAR TO NATURE 



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THE MARVELLOUS OPENING OF THE LOTUS FLOWER AND THE FALLING OF THE PETALS. 



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Catching Turkeys by a Fishhook. 



It is claimed that wild turkeys have 

 been largely exterminated from Vir- 

 ginia, even in places where they were 

 plentiful only a few years ago. Dr. 

 Shufeldt in "'The Auk" says that the 

 trouble is the negro who catches the 

 turkeys by an extremely cruel method 

 described as follows : 



"When these fowls came to flock, or at the 

 mating season, the ingenuity of these game 

 destroyers, — these law-breaking negroes, — 

 knew no limit. The places' where the 

 turkeys congregated or where they were in 

 the habit of roosting, were easily discovered, 

 and a most fatal design of trap was set for 

 them in each and every locality. So simple, 

 so inexpensive, so sure of result was the 

 means employed to capture the birds at 

 these times that their destruction was ef- 

 fected with great rapidity. They were 

 simply baited, and baited in two ways, de- 

 pending upon circumstances. For instance, 

 let us select one of the many localities in 



the forest where the turkeys roosted in the 

 trees, and where in the morning and early 

 evening they fed and strutted and walked 

 about on the ground, in the neighborhood. 

 To capture them, these negroes employed 

 only a very small fishhook firmly attached to 

 the end of a long piece of pliant, dark-colored 

 twine, of sufficient strength to hold the vic- 

 tim. When the hook and line were set up in 

 one of the roosting-trees it was baited with a 

 soft piece of dough about the size of a small 

 acorn. In the trees where the turkeys 

 roosted, parallel limbs were selected, the 

 one being some three or four feet above the 

 other. Through previous observation the 

 negro had become aware that a turkey was 

 in the habit of roosting on the lower limb, 

 and by running the twine over the upper 

 one and suspending the bait where the bird 

 could conveniently reach it, the remainder 

 of the line was cunningly concealed 

 through the trees and finally firmly fastened 

 to a peg in the ground beneath. What fol- 

 lows is easily imagined, and hundreds of wild 

 turkeys have been captured and killed by 

 this simple affair." 



