214 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [a^u. 



The natives make fans of the tail, and of four tails joined together, 

 the French make an umbrella. The women among the natives 

 weave the feathers as our peruke-makers weave their hair, and 

 fasten them to an old covering of bark, which they likewise line 

 with them, so that it has down on both sides. Its flesh is more 

 delicate — fatter and more juicy than that of ours. They go in 

 flocks, and with a. dog one may kill a great many of them. I could 

 never procure any of the turkey's eggs, to try to hatch them, and 

 discover whether they were as difficult to bring up in this country 

 as in France, since the climate of both countries is almost the 

 same. My slave told me, that in his nation they brought up the 

 young turkies as easily as we do chickens." 



Schultz (1. c, pp. 182, 184) in 1810 says " Those (birds) which may 

 be considered as local (New Orleans) are, . . . .wild turkey. . . .," and 

 1817 Samuel R. Brown practically repeats (pp. 146, 233) the same 

 observation. Of Mississippi, he says that "The traveller here 

 finds. . . .wild turkeys in frequent flocks." In the Nation of the 

 Creek Indians (Ouchee River) Adam Hodgson 1820 (Mar. 20) 

 writes x " He (Landlord) gave us a plain substantial fare, which .... 

 (is) sometimes varied by the introduction of wild venison or wild 

 turkies" killed by the Indians and furnished the landlord at little 

 cost. About the same time, Thos. L. McKinney writes (1. c, p. 159) 

 of the Chickasaw country as follows: "Nearly the whole of the 

 country of Chickasaws, through which I had, so far, passed was 

 poor. Wild turkeys plenty." In his trip up the Alabama River 

 between Montgomery and Mobile, Arfwedson notes that 2 " Im- 

 mense quantities of wild ducks and wild turkeys were constantly 

 disturbed by the paddles of the steamboat, but we often passed 

 through flocks of them without causing the least fright." In 

 "Recollections of Pioneer Life in Mississippi" by Miss Mary J. 



Welsh, we find that 3 "turkeys were abundant" in 1833-1836. 



The last note to be entered in this list is by C. C. Jones. He speaks 

 of the Choctaws who made 4 " turkey-feather blankets with the 



1 Hodgson, Adam. Letters from North America 2 vols. London, 1824, 



Vol. I, pp. 118, 125. 



2 Arfwedson, C. D. The United States and Canada, in 1832, 1833, and 1834. 

 2 vols. London, 1834, Vol. II, p. 41. 



s Miss. Hist. Soc. Publications. Vol. IV, p. 349. 



« Jones, C. C. Southern Indians. 1873, pp. 87, 77, 322. 



