2l6 GAME-BIKDS AT HOME. 



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in great numbers; and as they were then quite 

 plenty here, and as the walking was soft, we 

 stopped talking and slipped along quietly. We 

 had faint hope and no expectation ; but as it was 

 on the way to our stands for the deer-drive, we 

 thought we might as well make the best of what 

 faint chance there was. The number of tracks 

 rapidly increased, and it became plain that not a 

 flock but a large drove was feeding ahead of us. 

 We sped along on half tiptoe, with guns ready, 

 and suddenly the silence of the woods was broken 

 as we came to the edge of a little ravine by such 

 a roar of wings as was rarely heard there even 

 in those days, and probably never now in that 

 State. From the bottom of the ravine, not over 

 twenty feet deep and not ten yards distant, 

 thirty or forty full-grown turkeys, each seeming 

 as big as an open umbrella, wxre in the air at 

 once exactly like a flock of quails, and mounting 

 with a velocity and ease quite incredible to those 

 who have seen only the domestic turkey fly up 

 to roost. Before such a dress parade all other 

 sights of the hills and woods seem ridiculous. 

 I would go farther without a gun to see it once 

 more than to sec the biggest moose that ever 



