ANDERSON — THE BIRDS OF IOWA. 237 



about nine, some four or five miles soutlieast of Hesper (near State 

 line) in the northeastern part of Winneshiek county, on what was 

 called the Casterton Farm. I have never been there since, but a 

 friend of mine says he shot a prairie chicken three years ago di- 

 rectly south of Decorah, same county, that was unlike the rest 

 they shot, and the only ones he ever saw like it were .some shot 

 in North Dakota, .so I think there may be a scattering few yet 

 remaining in that locality." 



A. I. Johnson writes: "The years of 1890-91 I lived at Hull, 

 Sioux county, Iowa, and hunted considerably, but although I 

 was on the lookout for this bird I never found one or knew of one 

 being taken anywhere in that locality." W. H. Bingaman of 

 Algona writes: "I have never seen or heard of Prairie Sharp- 

 tailed Grouse in this state, and every fall I shoot hundreds of 

 chickens and formerly bought for market, but I have never seen 

 one that was taken in Iowa" (Kossuth). 



Family PHASIANID.F:.. Pheasants, Turkeys. 



This family includes the common fowl and various Old World 

 Pheasants, the only American representatives being the Turkeys. 



Subfamily MELEAGRINtE. Turkeys. 

 Genus Meleagris Linnaeus. 



131. (31 oa) . Meleagris gaUopavo silvcstris ( Vieill . ) . Wild Turkey. 



The Wild Turkey, the noblest American game bird, was once 

 fairly common in the wooded districts of the state, but is now 

 practically extinct. A few straggling birds are said to still sur- 

 vive on a protected farm in Eee county. 



The Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804 (Cones' Hist, of L. & 

 C. Exp., i, 54) found Turkeys common at various points along 

 the Missouri— July 22-26, 1804, below mouth of Mosquito Creek, 

 Mills county; July 31 — north of Boyer's Creek; August 9 — Mon- 

 ona county. Thomas Say found them at Engineers' Cantonment 

 in 1819-20. Prince Maximilian ob.served numbers at various 

 points along the Missouri in 1834 (Reise, ii, 343): May 13, 1834, 

 below Boyer's Creek; May 13, near Bellevue, Nebraska; May 14, 

 "Wheeping- water Creek . . . wir steigen ofters an das Land, 

 um wilde Truthiiner 7Ai jagen, deren Stimmen zu uns beriiber 

 schalten. Oefters trafen wir diese stolzen \'ogel in hohen luft- 



[Proc. D. \. S., Vol. .XI. 1 33 [Oct. 24, 1906.] 



