70 Weight, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [jan. 



" turkeys .... are, also easily obtained." " this country particularly 

 abounds in turkeys whose number excites no less admiration than 

 their rich flavour and their large size; for they go together in flocks 

 of thirty and forty; they weigh some thirty or more pounds ; they 

 are shot or are caught with a bait concealing the hook." The last 

 note in this century is by Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter. In 

 the fall of 1679, they l "had to go along the shore, finding some fine 

 creeks well provided with wild turkeys." Again they "were .... 

 served with wild turkey, which was also fat and of a good flavour." 

 At the time of the French and Indian War we have two notes. 

 In the " Journal of Gen Rufus Putnam kept in Northern New York, 

 .... 1757-1760" he states 2 that "on our march in this river (near 

 Dutch Hoosack) this day (Feb. 4, 1758) Capt. Learned killed two 

 turkeys." On the following day, they " killed another turkey .... 

 which we spared for necessity. We encamped this night with sad 

 hearts and the countenance of every man shewed he was perplexed 

 in mind, in consideration that the turkey was the chief of the pro- 

 vision that we had." In Hugh Gibson's Captivity among the 

 Delaware Indians, July 1756- Apr. 1759, we find that his captors 

 when near Painted Post 3 "killed one turkey." Twenty years 

 later, 1779, two other captives, John and Robert Brice, report that 

 in their journey to Canada the Indians killed plenty of turkeys 

 from Unadilla River to Chemung and Genesee Rivers. 4 In the 

 time of Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer, or in the latter part of the 

 18th century, we find that 5 " the wild turkey, from which Callicoon 

 (N. Y.) derives its name had not yet fled, like the aborigine, to a 

 more solitary and secure retreat." The Stockbridge Indian coun- 

 try in 1804 is said to have 6 "Of the feathered kinds, turkies." 

 The same year, Robert Munro in his Description of the Genesee 

 country gives the turkey among the great variety of birds for game 

 in this fertile region. 7 



« Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in Several of the American Col- 

 onies in 1679-80. Transl. by H. C. Murphy. Brooklyn. 1867, pp. 123, 145. 

 » Journal, etc. Edited by E C. Dawes. Albany, N. Y., 1886, p. 53 

 » Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls. Third Series. Vol. VI, p. 147. • 



* Priest, Jos. Stories of the Revolution. Albany, 1838, p. 5. 



« Tom Quick the Indian Slayer Monticello, N. Y., 1851, p. 225. 



• Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls. 1804. Vol. IX, p. 99. 



^ Doc. Hist. New York. Vol. II, 1849, p. 1174 (8vo edition). 



