THE WILD TURKEY. 29 



cordance with the ethics and aesthetics of true sport is 

 another matter. 



If a man wanted the birds for food, no one could ob- 

 ject to this system of destruction, as the old adage, 

 "necessity has no laws," would be applicable in his case; 

 but if he did not want them particularly, this idea of 

 calling a flock at a time within gun-shot would be open to 

 criticism. The veriest tyro can bag gobblers in regions 

 where they are little hunted, for the necessity of cau- 

 tiousness and vigilance has not been forced upon them 

 by stern lessons; hence, they allow their human foe to 

 approach close enough to deal destruction among them 

 before they learn to know that he represents death to 

 them. 



The turkey is quite common in Florida, Texas, Ari- 

 zona, New Mexico, Arkansas, the Indian Territory, 

 Louisiana, and some of the contiguous regions, and its 

 pursuit is a favorite pastime in winter with those who 

 like a life in the wilderness, and prefer its virile amuse- 

 ments to the gentler, though more exacting, pleasures of 

 a city. People who have pursued and bagged their 

 twenty-pound gobblers, whether by calling, stalking, or 

 any other method known to the initiated, consider them- 

 selves ''no small apples," when compared to those who 

 have not; and veteran turkey-hunters think all other 

 kinds of bird-shooting quite tame, if not insignificant, 

 in comparison with their favorite sport. 



There is scarcely one of these men who cannot tell a 

 tale about some unusually keen-witted turkey which he 

 could not kill, or which cost him so much time and 

 trouble to bag that it pi'oved an exceedingly costly 

 trophy; but the question of labor and expense is a very 

 minor one with all of them when contrasted with their 

 sense of satisfaction at their final success. I have had 

 several opportunities of Judging what an astute gobbler 

 is capable of doing so far as escaping his foes is con- 



