222 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. \J^ 



" The programme for each day was arranged in the following man- 

 ner: In the morning at daybreak we were awakened by the cackling 



of the turkeys " 



Shortly after (1803) the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 Thaddeus Mason Harris (1. c, p. 51) says, "the vast number of tur- 

 kies, .... we saw upon the shore (Ohio River below Wheeling) .... 

 afforded us constant amusement." In 1806, T. Ashe (1. c. pp. 160, 

 111, 113, 130, 134, 135, 144, 145) gives "Wild Turkey Meleagris 

 Gallopavo" in his list of birds, records it at Wheeling and Marietta 

 and writes of it at considerable length when at the latter place^and 

 near Zanesville. His account follows: "The wild turkey is excel- 

 lent food, and has this remarkable property, that the fat is never 

 offensive to the stomach. When Kentucky was first settled it 

 abounded with turkeys to such a degree that the settlers said the 

 light was often interrupted by them. Though this may be consid- 

 ered a figure, still it is well known that they were extremely numer- 

 ous, so much so that he was esteemed an indifferent sportsman who 

 could not kill a dozen in a day. Even at this time they are sold in 

 Lexington market for half a dollar a pair. They are, notwithstand- 

 ing becoming very scarce, and, addicted as all classes of people in 

 that state are to an intemperate predilection for destroying every 

 living aboriginal creature, their total extinction must be near at 

 hand. They yet abound in this Ohio State, and possibly will, for 

 many years; till - it becomes more peopled." "I cannot pretend 

 that wild turkeys differ in any striking manner from the domestic 

 ones I have everywhere seen, except the length of their wings; 

 their superior plumage, their attitude and lively expression in walk- 

 ing. The cock too has a beard composed of about one hundred 

 hairs which hangs in a streamer from under the bick. The hair is 

 thicker than a pig's bristle, and the length accords with the age. 

 In the young the beard is hardly perceptible, in the old it descends 

 more than half a foot. I have killed a wild turkey cock which 

 weighed thirty pounds and whose beard was ten inches long: the 

 flesh was execrable, nearly as hard as iron, and as black as jet. 

 The young on the contrary are white and tender, delicate meat, and 

 of exquisite flavor. Wild turkeys are gregarious. The flocks from 

 fifty to sixty. They are migratory. They winter to the southward 

 and return in the spring to the deepest recesses of the woods, where 



