Vol. XIX 

 1902 J 



I Goldman, In Search of a Nezv Turkey. ^ 23 



them had been made that day. At the end of an hour or so I 

 came to the head of a small side canon about a mile from camp. 

 The sun had just set and all nature seemed to have gone to sleep. 

 Not a sound broke the stillness except the slight, unavoidable rust- 

 ling of my own footsteps kmong the dry leaves. I stopped a 

 moment to listen and had about decided to cut across to camp 

 when suddenly from down the canon came faint but unmistakable 

 turkey notes which started me on a run in that direction. A few 

 minutes later I cautiously approached the place where probably 

 over 150 turkeys, all females and young of the year, were noisily 

 trying to settle themselves for the night. They occupied the tops 

 of tall pines for about 200 yards along one of the steep walls of the 

 canon. In many of the trees there were only two or three tur- 

 keys, but some of the larger ones, and especially those with many 

 dead branches, contained from five to ten birds. Many of them sat 

 as closely together as possible and constantly craned their necks 

 about, squawking, crowding each other and struggling for places. 

 They flew frequently from tree to tree and sometimes a bird, 

 alighting clumsily on a crowded branch would knock off one or two 

 others and all would fly off noisily to other places. At first the 

 disorder seemed to be general and most of the birds were crowding 

 or being crowded and were uttering loud cries of "quit, quit, quit," 

 with many modulations depending apparently upon the degree of 

 excitement. They rapidly became quieter, however, until by the 

 time it was dark they were settled for the night. When all was 

 still I rose from the cover where I had been hiding and after care- 

 fully noting the locality, left the birds undisturbed and picked my 

 way across several small caiions into camp. The hunter came in 

 soon' afterward and a comparison of notes showed that we had 

 located the same roost, he having come up the canon while I went 

 down, and each had decided to watch the birds until dark and not 

 to begin firing without the other. About 9 o'clock we returned to 

 the place. The first few shots, fired rapidly, created a great com- 

 motion, and the air seemed to be filled with turkeys flying heavily 

 off in all directions, but there were no outcries and in a few 

 minutes all was quiet, and no more birds could be found. I was 

 satisfied, however, that we had secured as many as necessary for 

 specimens though we did not know the exact number, for some of 



