366 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [fxi^ 



The sharp crack of a rifle soon announced the doom of one of 

 the flock, 



In 1860, Domenech tells us that in the western part of Texas 

 between the Rio Seco and Rio Blanco 1 "Partridge, quail, wild 

 turkeys. . . .have made of this spot their favorite sojourn." Ten 

 years later, 1870, William A. Bell reports that at Turkey Mountain 

 (not far from Las Vegas) 2 " the wild turkeys had all been either 

 shot or driven away by the officers of Fort Union." Lastly, H. M. 

 Chittenden remarks that 3 " on the lower Missouri and in the 

 south west the wild turkey abounded, and was extensively used for 

 food" in the days of the early fur trade of the West. 



In this recital, the effort has been to interweave these early 

 records without paraphrase. At times they are decidedly ungram- 

 matical, some bordering on fiction, others bizarre in the extreme; 

 yet they all ought to be added to the turkey literature and may 

 supplement the material so frequently rehashed in recent years. 



1 Domenech, Abbe Em. Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North 

 America. 2 vols. London, 1860, Vol. I, p. 134. 



2 Bell, Wm. A. New Tracks in North America. 2nd edit. London, 1870, 

 p. 122. 



3 Chittenden, H. M. The American Fur Trade of the Far West. 3 vols. 

 N. Y., 1902, Vol. II, p. 835. 



