216 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [£$i 



exampled severity ensued; and numbers of . . . .wild turkeys were 

 found frozen to death." 



During the early campaigns the turkeys often kept the wounded 

 alive. In the autumn of 1779, Major Rodgers and Capt. Benham 

 when near Harrodsburgh, Kentucky, so sustained themselves. 1 

 "Fortunately, wild turkeys were abundant in those woods, and his 

 companion would walk around, and drive them towards Benham, 

 who seldom failed to kill two or three of each flock. In this manner, 

 they supported themselves for several weeks, until their wounds 

 had healed so as to enable them to travel." In 1784 John Filson 



finds 2 " The land fowls are turkeys, which are very frequent, " 



The same year, 1784, J. F. D. Smyth (I. c, Vol. I, p. 337) speaks in 

 hyperbole. " Wild turkeys, very large and fat, are almost beyond 

 number, sometimes five thousand in a flock, of which a man may 

 kill just as many as he pleases." In 1787-1788, Mrs. Mary Dewee 

 finds 3 " The variety of deer, .... turkeys, . . . . , with which this coun- 

 try abounds keeps us always on the lookout, and adds much to the 

 beauty of the scenes around us." In writing of Kentucky in 1794, 

 Thomas Cooper says 4 " Of wild turkies, however, there are abun- 

 dance, nearly as tame as those breed in the yard. From their being 

 extremely poor in the summer, they remain unmolested; in the 

 winter they grow very fat, and are reckoned delicious food:" 

 The last note of the 18th century, comes the following year (1795) 

 when Andre Michaux reports it in Tennessee. At Nashville, he 

 says 5 "Sunday 21st of June 1795 killed and skinned some birds. 

 Birds:.... a few species of the Genus Picus: Wild Turkeys." 

 In Oct., 1795, he writes that on the "17th ascended the River 

 (Cumberland) about ten Miles: there were numbers of Wild 

 Turkeys on the banks; the Rowers and I killed five from the 

 Canoe in passing, without landing." Finally, on Dec. 31 of 

 the same year, he states that "most of (them) went hunting 

 Wild Turkeys," along the Little River. 



1 McClung, John A. Sketches of Western Adventure: Phila. 1832, p. 



171. 



« Filson, J. The Discovery, Settlement and present State of Kentucke 



Wilmington, 1784, p. 26. 



' Penn. Mag. Hist. & Biog., Vol. XXVIII, p. 195. 



* Cooper, T. Some Information Respecting America, etc. London, 1794, p. 38. 

 Early Western Travels, III, pp. 33, 63, 76, 82. 



