468 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [oct. 



cut from the breast of a young turkey, fried in butter, and partaken 

 after a hard day's hunt, in which a companion and myseh' killed 

 seven large fine birds." 



In 1777 near Pamlico Sound, Elkanah Watson gives ^ "chase to a 

 wild turkey, that maintained his equal right to the road, like a true 

 North Carolina Republican; and, in spite of our efforts, he stretched 

 away upon his long legs, far beyond our reach." The Hon. C. A. 

 Murray holds to a somewhat different opinion. In the neighbor- 

 hood of Kansas River, when he is - " crossing a wooded ravine a 

 flock of turkeys, containing I think fifty or sixty, rose, and flew to a 

 neighbouring thicket; as they were on the wing I fired a ball at 

 random among them; it broke two or three feathers, but killed 

 none. When my companions arrived, I halted them for half an 

 hour, and went with the young American lad in pursuit of them; 

 but they had beat us completely in the thicket, and we saw nothing 

 more of them. Had w^e got them out on the open prairie we should 

 have had excellent sport. A wild turkey runs with exceeding 

 swiftness, but he cannot keep it up long, and his wings are not.pro- 

 portioned to the great weight of his body, so as to enable him to fly 

 far. I have been told, that on a fair plain without trees, an active 

 Indian or white man, could run one down in little more than an 

 hour." The same gentleman recounts a hand-to-hand encounter 

 he has with a wdld turkey at Leesburgh, Va. "I was crossing a 

 wooded ravine, when a large gobbler (so is the full-grown wild 

 turkey-cock called here) started from the brushwood ; my gun was 

 only loaded with very small partridge-shot, but I discharged both 

 barrels after the flying enemy, accidentally broke his wing; he 

 came to the ground, and began to run like an ostrich. The little 

 spaniel pursued in gallant style; but when he came up, was too 

 small to hurt or hold his antagonist. I threw down my rifle 

 and joined in the pursuit; at length I got hold of the turkey's leg; 

 the grass was slippery with ice, and in his desperate struggle to 

 escape he pulled me over on the ground, then he scratched my hands 

 with his claws, and nearly blinded me by flapping his great wings 



1 Watson, W. C. Men and Times of the Revolution: or Memoirs of Elkanah 

 Watson. New York, 1857. 2nd edition, p. 46. 



2 Mm-ray, Hon. C. A. Travels in North America diiring the years 1834, 1835 

 and 1836. 2 vols. N. Y. 1839. Vol. II, p. 48, I, p. 88. 



