AVERY BIRD COLLECTION Al 
“T 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.” 
INGO tthe 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 
these forests, especially in the breeding season, when the 
hens would leave their usual haunts in the woods, in 
search 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 dangér 
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 
