AVERY BIRD COLLECTION 41 



"I crossed the river at Erie last year and found the 

 covies in Greene County very small, and far between. 

 Mr. Tunstall had been shooting there, it was told me. The 

 truth is, the negroes were shooting and trapping the 

 birds. Mr. Tunstall nor any other single shooter could 

 perceptibly diminish the number of birds from Millwood 

 to Erie, even if he had hunted every day. 'Many mickles 

 make a muckle' as the Scotch say; it is this everlasting 

 'shooting of the many' — even though the average of game 

 killed to the gun be small — that must wipe out our game 

 and put an end to sport with gun and dog, unless some 

 means can be devised to protect the birds. 



"The drought has been alleged as the cause of the scar- 

 city of birds this year, but I think I have stated the true 

 cause, which will continue in the future, no matter 

 whether the seasons are wet or dry, favorable or un- 

 favorable, if some law is not passed to enable those to 

 protect the birds on their land, who wish to save them 

 from annihilation." 



No Male. Greensboro. Dec. 31, 1891. W. C. Avery. 



No. 999. Female. Baldwin Co. Sept. 28, 1892. W. C. Avery. 



57. MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO SILVESTRIS (Vieillot). • 

 Wild Turkey. 



"Twenty years ago the wild turkey, if not common, was 

 not a very rare bird, in this part of Alabama. A drove 

 of turkeys could be found almost anywhere, where there 

 was a considerable body of the primeval forest still 

 standing. They wandered out in every direction from 

 ^^hese forests, especially in the breeding season, when the 

 hens would leave their usual haunts in the woods, in 

 seiarch of nesting places. These would be sometimes two 

 or three miles from their habitat, in some sedge field, or 

 some thicket in a piece of woods not usually frequented 

 by wild turkeys. This propensity of the hen to hide 

 her nest from her own kind exposed her to the danger 

 of having her eggs taken, or her young captured some- 

 times before they could fly. 



"One day a young turkey, a few days old, was brought 

 me by a negro who had caught it in the field about a mile 



