472 Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. [oct' 



Of Ohio in 1814 and 1815, Walker writes ^ " Wild Turkeys are 

 very plenty. I have often set a square pen made of rails, then scat- 

 tered a little corn about it and into it, and caught eight or ten fine 

 ones at a time. The pen being covered at the top the turkeys could 

 not fly out, and they never thought of ducking their heads to get out 

 by the same passage they came in." In Michigan, about this same 

 period, the pen has this description: (Tibbits, J. S., I. c, p. 404) 

 " The wild turkey is sometimes caught in pens made of poles, some 

 five or six feet in height and covered over the top to prevent their 

 escape. A covered passageway is made under the pen large enough 

 for the turkeys to crawl through. Corn or other grain is scattered 

 in the passageway inside the pen. The unsuspecting birds, seeing 

 the grain, commence picking it up, and thus one after another crawl 

 through the hole into the pen. ' Once in, forever in,' for they never 

 think of putting their heads down to crawl out again." 



Wlien at the Mammoth Cave, Blane, (1. c. p. 277) an English 

 gentleman finds, "The manner in which great numbers of wild 

 turkeys are caught is very simple and curious. A Pen is made by 

 placing rough hewn rails one above another, so as to form a vacant 

 space, about six or eight feet long and as many broad, which is. 

 closed at the top by heavy rails laid across. A small trench is then 

 dug for a yard or two on the outside and continued under the lowest 

 rail into the interior. In this trench some Indian corn is strewed, 

 and the turkeys, while employed in picking it up, advance with their 

 head downwards into the Pen. As soon as they find themselves 

 in the enclosure, these stupid birds never think of stooping down, or 

 they could walk out as easily as they walked in ; but instead of this 

 they try to force a way out at the top and sides, and continue jump- 

 ing about in great alarm, till some one in the course of the day 

 visits the Pen and secures them. I have known as many as seven 

 or eight caught within four and twenty hours in a single Pen." 



In Canada the same method used to be in vogue. Smith finds ^ 

 a "common mode of capturing them is by trapping. This is 

 eft'ected by erecting a large pen or hut of fence rails, leaving the 

 lower rail of one side a sufficient height from the ground to allow of 



' Walker, Chas. N. History of Athens, O. Cincinnati. 1869, p. 431. 

 2 Smith, W. H. Canada; Past, Present and Future, etc. 2 vols. Toronto.. 

 1851, Vol. II, p. 405. 



