^°^9l™] Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 465 



with a large flock of Turkies, and galloped after them as. hard as 

 they could, until they obliged the Turkies to take wing and get 

 upon trees, when the party alighted oft' their horses, and shot 

 seventeen fine Turkies, with which they returned to camp. They 



all shot with rifles He (Lieut. Turner) told me when he was 



one day permitted to go along with them to the woods on a shooting 

 party; that how soon they fell in with Turkies, the Indians pursued 

 on foot as fast as they could run, bawling and hallowing all the time 

 to frighten the birds, and when they had thus got them upon trees, 

 that they shot many of them. Several other persons told me that 

 this was the surest way to get them. They are so tame or stupid 

 when they are in the trees, as to stand perhaps till the last of them 

 be killed; whereas, on the ground, they are so quick sighted and 

 fleet, that in an instant they are out of sight. An old Turkey Cock 

 can outrun any man on the ground. Another method practiced, 

 is that of watching them on the ground until they get up to roost in 

 the trees in the evening, when the sportsmen may shoot on until the 

 last in the flock be killed." 



In 1824, John Hunter in the 'Memoirs of a Captivity among the 

 Indians of North America," gives us the following manner of 

 hunting: ^ " The turkey is not valued, though when fat, the Indians 

 frequently take them ali^-e in the following manner. Having 

 prepared from the skin an apt resemblance of the living bird, they 

 follow the turkey trails or haunts, till they discover a flock, when 

 they secrete themselves behind a log, in such a manner as to elude 

 discovery : partially display their decoy ; and imitate the gobbling 

 noise of the cock. This management generally succeeds to draw 

 off first one and then another from their companions, which from 

 their social and unsuspecting habits, thus successively place them- 

 selves literally in the hands of the hunters, who quickly despatch 

 them, and await for the arrival for more. This species of hunting, 

 with fishing, is more practised by the boys than the older Indians, 

 who seldom, in fact, undertake them, unless closely pressed by 

 hunger." 



The Indians also used to employ a blow gun. McKinney when 



1 Hunter, John. Memoirs — . Third edit, with additions. London, 1824, 

 pp. 282, 383. 



