1 44 Correspondence. Ljan 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Extermination of the Wild Turkey in the State of Virginia. 



Editors of 'The Auk': 



Dear Sirs: — Recently in conversation with a friend, and Ex-Congress- 

 man, and one greatly interested in the game and game laws of the State 

 of Virginia, I gained some reliable information in regard to the present 

 status of the Wild Turkey in that section of the United States, which was a 

 surprise to me, and may be to other ornithologists who have not of late 

 especially investigated that subject. It is a well-known fact that many 

 years ago in all the wilder and, for the turkey, suitable parts of the State 

 of Virginia, this species was to be found there in great numbers. Indeed, 

 it is well within my recollection when one had to go but a very short distance 

 from Washington, D. C, into Virginia, in the forest regions, to find Wild 

 Turkeys more or less abundant, and the hunters shot them there and 

 brought them to the Washington Markets. My friend informs me that 

 only fifteen years ago they were fairly abundant in Rappahannock County, 

 less than one hundred miles from Washington, which is a division of the 

 State where not one is at this writing to be found. What is true of Rap- 

 pahannock County is probably more or less true for the entire State of 

 Virginia, and as Virginia is a State that has not settled up very rapidly, 

 the reason for the comparatively sudden disappearance of this bird there 

 must be attributed to some other cause rather than to the encroachment 

 of man on its domain, which cause invariably proves fatal to the existence 

 of any wild form upon which he preys, — either for food or for other pur- 

 poses. After fair and extended investigation my informant is of the 

 opinion that the blame for the practical extermination of this magnificent 

 American game bird in the region indicated is to be laid at the door of the 

 negro who prowls through the forests of that part of the country. There 

 the negro is essentially a savage and a squatter, living in a primitive cabin 

 in the timbered sections, and existing upon what these forests afford him. 



The male Virginia negro there has risen but very little above his African 

 ancestors, and still possesses all of the undesirable qualities of the latter. 

 If one passes through this wilderness, the former home of the Wild Turkey, 

 he will, ever and anon, meet with one of these negro men. Solitary and 

 silent, clad in his tattered garments, and carrying a primitive, single- 

 barrel gun with its ammunition, he roams about like a veritable savage 

 that he essentally is, seeking to slay any living creature that may afford 

 him food, and mitigate the pangs of his almost ever-present hunger. He 

 barely notices you as you pass him, and later on you may hear the boom 

 of his big-bored fowling piece, perhaps nigh a mile away, and wonder to 

 your heart's content as to the kind of animal he has slain. 



At a time when the Wild Turkeys were rapidly disappearing in this part 



