364 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [ Ju i y 



" Among the birds fit for food, are the wild turkey, (commonly 

 found in the woods, and near the edges of the prairies) .-..." In 

 1S37-1838, Daubeny records at Little Rock, Ark., that he x "saw 

 two wild turkies on Saturday, but at too great a distance to give 

 us a chance of shooting either." On a trip from Little Rock to 

 Hot Spring, April 11, he writes, "we accompanied our host in a 

 chase after a wild turkey, which I had a great ambition to kill and 

 stuff for our Museum at Oxford. The females were decoyed by 

 imitating the gobble of the turkey-cock, in which the back settlers 

 are very expert, but on this occasion the strategem was tried 

 unsuccessively; for though we saw several, and chased them 

 through the wood, w y e never got within gunshot of any one. My 

 man made several other attempts, but always in vain. 



In Josiah Gregg's "Commerce of the Prairies" we have under 

 "Animals of the Prairies" the following: 2 "About the Cross- 

 Timbers and indeed on all the brushy creeks, especially to the 

 southward, are quantities of wild turkeys which are frequently seen 

 ranging in large flocks in the bordering prairies." Westward of 

 Spring Valley near the Canadian, he says "every nook and glade 

 swarmed with deer and wild turkeys, . . . . " In another instance 

 he states that "In some of the mountains (of New Mexico), wild 

 turkey are very numerous." In 1847 (January 14), Abert's party 

 of the Emory expedition (Emory, 1. c, p. 505) "saw wild turkeys" 

 at Valverde, New Mexico. In 1849, R. B. Marcy reports that on 

 the Divide near the Canadian River, 3 " We have seen many ante- 

 lopes and turkeys during the last few days." Seventeen days 

 later in June, he reports for the Canadian river region; " I killed a 

 turkey this evening, which is the first we have seen for a week." 



The following year the report of S. G. French appears and therein 

 he notes that 4 " It might be well to remark that, in all the streams 

 between San Antonio and the San Pedro, fish are abundant, and 

 that in their vicinity deer and turkeys are found." About the 



1 Daubeny, Charles. Journal of A Tour through the United States and in 

 Canada, Made During the Years 1837-38. Oxford, 1843, pp. 154, 157. 



2 Early Western Travels. XX (orig. Vol. II) pp. 282 (232), 115 (28), XIX (orig. 

 Vol. I), pp. 328 (195), 325 (191). 



3 Marcy, R. B. 1. c, pp. 179, 183. 



4 French, S. G., Report of. From Reports of Reconnaissances of Routes from 

 San Antonio to El Paso. 31st Congress, 1st Sess. Ex. Doc. No. 64, 1850, p. 52. 



