THE WILD TURKEY 301 
down again to sheltered cafions or timbered river val- 
leys, where they spend the winter. 
In the southern States turkeys have always been 
abundant and their stronghold is still there—parts of 
Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. Merriam’s 
turkey is said to be almost extinct in Colorado, but is 
still abundant in Arizona and New Mexico. That there 
should be occasional outlying colonies of a few birds 
in Iowa and Nebraska, such as Mr. Griswold is told 
of, seems very surprising, but such colonies cannot last 
long unless protected by the owners of the land on 
which they live. 
The turkey, grandest of game birds, has been ex- 
terminated over much of its former range. Great in 
size, and valuable for food, he is an object of pursuit 
wherever found. So, throughout the farming country 
of the North and West the turkey is gone and gone for- 
ever. As the country is settled up, is his complete ex- 
termination to follow? Domesticated, he will always 
survive, but should we not strive to retain the old wild 
turkey of the eastern States in his untamed wild state, 
self-dependent, one of the typical and interesting in- 
habitants of our primitive forests and our far-stretch- 
ing southern plains? 
