292 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
streams in eastern central Nebraska forty or fifty years 
ago: 
“There were a good many wild turkeys here on the 
Loup River, the Elkhorn and Shell Creek when we 
came here. Ed. Chambers tells me they were often 
seen on the Niobrara River in early days—say in 1877. 
I do not recall that any turkeys were seen when the 
Pawnee scouts were out in 1867, guarding the track 
layers on the plains toward the mountains, but at that 
time turkeys were found on the Platte River near old 
Ft. McPherson—not far below the forks of the Platte.” 
In August, 1909, Forest and Stream printed a letter 
from me inquiring as to the western range of the wild 
turkey. This inquiry brought out some extremely in- 
teresting information which indicates that the former 
range of the turkey extended regularly to South 
Dakota. In my letter I asked what the northern and 
western range of the turkey was, and whether any of 
Forest and Stream’s correspondents had ever known of 
its being found in the Black Hills. In response to this 
Sandy Griswold, of Omaha, Neb., sent to Forest and 
Stream a letter, from which I quote the essential para- 
graphs: 
“The query whether wild turkeys ever got as far 
West as the Black Hills I am unable to answer; I do 
know, however, that no longer ago than 1894 they had 
found their way as far as the foothills this side of the 
Black Hills in South Dakota. 
“T was camped on the Lake Creek marshes that fall, 
duck shooting, and on the third of November Alfred 
