124 Goldman, In Search of a New Turkey. \_f^x. 



them went thumping down to the bottom of the cailon, and others 

 fell at some distance. 



At daylight next morning we were again on the ground and found 

 the flock broken up into small parties, which soon left their roosts 

 and went off in various directions. On leaving the trees, the tur- 

 keys usually flew two or three hundred yards and then ran rapidly 

 until out of sight. During the following days it became evident 

 that all the tracks seen for several miles about our camp had been 

 made by this flock. No more fresh ones were found in the 

 vicinity, showing that the frightened birds had left the locality at 

 once. 



Our lucky night hunt having given us a fine series of females 

 and young of the year we then devoted our attention entirely to the 

 old gobblers. We hunted steadily, day after day, covering the 

 country for miles in all directions without seeing any of the old 

 fellows, but they were in the country and it could only be a ques- 

 tion of time until we found them. From the tracks of the different 

 flocks it appeared that the old males were living apart from the 

 females and young. Females and young were seen several times 

 but were not molested. Evidently these birds wander far and wide, 

 for tracks a day or two old were often found along some ridge and 

 no fresh ones were seen in the vicinity for days. It did not appear 

 that the birds returned regularly to the same roosting place. Sev- 

 eral old roosts were found, usually among tall pines near the head or 

 along the walls of some side caiion, which were evidently occupied 

 occasionally. None appeared to have been used very long, and at 

 least two had only been occupied once. The birds spent the day 

 wandering over the broad and gently sloping ridges between the 

 canons and as evening approached worked toward one of the 

 canons and roosted wherever night overtook them. 



Finally on the ninth day, soon after noon I came upon some 

 big gobbler tracks which were evidently only two or three hours 

 old, and decided at once to follow them. There were about fifteen 

 of the old fellows, and in crossing patches of soft soil they left a 

 broad trail which became very indistinct or disappeared altogether 

 on rocky ground. I had gone only a short distance when my 

 hunter, whom I supposed far away, came up. He had found my 

 moccasin tracks following the turkey trail and quickly overtook me. 



