24 AMERICAK GAME BIBD SHOOTING. 



a quarter of an inch of the bottom, and cut as thin as 

 possible. By taking both ends between the thumb and 

 fingers, and rubbing it crosswise on the barrels of the 

 gun or the butt j^late, the call notes of the hen can be 

 produced after a little practice. One that imitates the 

 *' yelp " of a turkey very well, is made of a piece of wood 

 about three inches long, two inches wide, and hollowed 

 out until it is quite thin. By inserting a nail or a piece 

 of wire in the bottom of this simple apparatus, and 

 drawing it across a slate, an erotic gobbler may be coaxed 

 within range; but, to be successful, the hand must care- 

 fully cover the hole, in order to produce the intonation 

 which is so deceptive and alluring. Some persons prefer 

 to all these a piece of thin rubber — that known to dentists 

 as rubber dam — about three inches long and an inch wide. 

 By turning down one edge, and partially articulating the 

 notes into it, the yelj^s and calls can be fairly imitated. 

 Even with all these devices, and a perfect mastery of the 

 cries of the turkey, one may sit and call for hours with- 

 out receiving a response from the wary birds, and if he 

 does, they may not so much as deign to approach him. 

 The novice who has not mastered the notes of the turkey 

 would bo more liable to scare away every gobbler in the 

 forest with these calls than to bring him within shoot- 

 ing distance; to bag one, he must, therefore, resort to 

 some other tactics besides calling; but as these are varied 

 enough, he need not return empty-handed from a dis- 

 rict in which the birds are plentiful. 



The general methods employed in bagging them are, 

 to stalk them; to shoot them on their perches during 

 moonlight nights; to wait for them in ambush behind a 

 baited blind; to work them up over trained dogs and 

 bring them down when they are on the wing; to follow 

 them to their roosts; and to track them on the snow. 

 The latter is perhaps the most unsportsmanlike system, 

 as they cannot easily be induced to leave their roosts if 



