Vol 1 f 1 ^ xn ] Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 213 



six years later, 1832 Timothy Flint (1. c, Vol. I, p. 210.) finds at 

 Pensacola that "wild turkeys are constantly off erred for sale by 

 the Indians." Five years previous 1827, John Lee Williams 

 records l " Wild Turkey -Meleagr is americana plenty," and in a 

 subsequent work, 1837 he gives it more attention. 2 "The Wild 

 Turkey, meleagris Americana, stands at the head of the festive 

 board, and is abundant in most of the new settlements." 



Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. 



In this region the record begins with the last voyage of La Salle 

 to discover the Mississippi. "The plains lying on one side of it 



" he says 3 " are stored with .... turkeys ; " At Maligne River, 



" our hunters killed .... turkeys " On this same journey, when 



at Bay St. Louis he remarks, 4 " We had also an infinite Number of 



Beeves .... Turkeys " At Le Boucon, they saw turkeys and of 



the country through which he passed he notices that "There are 

 Abundance of Deer. . . .and all Sorts of wild Fowl, and more espe- 

 cially of Turkeys." 



Du Pratz in the early part of the eighteenth century was travel- 

 ing in Louisiana, and in several places in his account of his journey 

 he mentions the turkey. 5 " The French settlers raise in this prov- 

 ince turkies of the same kind with those of France." In another 

 place he notes that " Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark 

 of the mulberry tree or of the feathers of swans, turkies or India 

 ducks." In one instance, he writes of the turkey at some length. 

 " I shall now proceed to speak of the fowls which frequent the woods, 

 and shall begin with the Wild-Turky, which is very common all over 

 the colony. It is finer, larger, and better than that of France. 

 The feathers of the turky are duskish grey, edged with a streak 

 of gold colour, near half an inch broad. In the small feathers the 

 gold-coloured streak is not above one tenth of an inch broad. 



i Williams, John Lee. A View of West Florida, etc. Phila., 1827, p. 31. 



» . The Territory of Florida, etc. New York, 1837, p. 73. 



3 French, B. F. Hist. Colls, of La., Part I. New York, 1846, pp. 176, 136, 121. 

 * Joutel, M. A Journal of the last Voyage Performed by M. de la Salle to the 

 Gulph of Mexico. Translation London, 1714, pp. 62, 78, v, 82, 87. 

 s Du Pratz, M. LeP. 1. c, pp. 283, 363, 276, 277, 161. 



