640 GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



The Wild Turkey, once prevalent throughout the whole 

 continent of North America, from Mexico and the Antil- 

 les, to the forests of Lower Canada, is now by the progress 

 and density of population chiefly confined to the thickly 

 wooded and uncultivated tracts of the Western States, be- 

 ing particularly abundant in the unsettled parts of Ohio, 

 Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and throughout the vast forests 

 of the great valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri. On 

 the banks of the latter river, however, where the woods 

 disappear beyond the confluence of the Platte, the Tur- 

 key no longer appears, and the feathers of the wings, for 

 the purpose of pluming arrows, form an article of small 

 commerce between the other natives and their western 

 countrymen. For a thousand miles up the Arkansas and 

 Red River, in the wooded alluvial lands, they are not un- 

 common. They are likewise met with in small num- 

 bers, in Tennessee, Alabama, and West Florida. From 

 the Atlantic States generally they are now nearly exter- 

 pated. 



The Wild Turkey is neither gregarious nor migratory, 

 but from the necessity of wandering after food ; it is oth- 

 erwise resident throughout the whole of the vast region it 

 inhabits, including the greatest diversity of climate ; and 

 it is prolific in proportion to its natural resources, so that 

 while in the United States and Canada it only breeds once 

 in the year, in Jamaica and the other West India is- 

 lands, it is said to raise two or three broods in the same 

 period. In quest of mast, they therefore spread them- 

 selves through the country, and insensibly assemble in 

 considerable numbers to the district where their food 

 abounds. These movements are observed to take place 

 early in October, (the Turkey moon of the aborigines.) 

 The males, or gobblers^ as they are often called, from 

 their note, are now seen apart from the other sex, in com- 



