WILD TURKEY HUNTING. 13 



and notliing but stratagem, and an intimate knowledge 

 of the habits of the bird by the hunter, will command 

 success. We once knew an Indian, celebrated for all 

 wood craft, who made a comfortable living by supplying 

 a frontier town with game. Often did he greet the vil- 

 lagers with loads of venison, with grouse, with bear, but 

 seldom, indeed, did he oflfer the esteemed turkey for 

 sale. Upon being reproached for his seeming incapacity 

 to kill the turkey, by those who desired the bird, he de- 

 feuded himself as follows : 



" Me meet moose — he stop to eat, me shoot him. 

 Me meet bear — he climb a tree, no see Indian, me shoot 

 him. Me meet deer — he look up — say may be Indian, 

 may be stump — and me shoot him. Me see turkey great 

 way oflf — he look up and say, Indian coming sure — me 

 no shoot turkey, he cunning too much." 



The turkey is also very tenacious of life, and will 

 often escape though wounded in a manner that would 

 seem to defy the power of locomotion. A rifle ball has 

 been driven through and through the body of a turkey, 

 and yet it has run with speed for miles. Some hunters 

 have been fortunate in possessing dogs that bave, with- 

 out any instruction, been good turkey hunters. These 

 dogs follow the scent, lead the hunter up to the haunts 

 of the bird, lie quiet until a shot is had, and then follow 

 the game if only wounded, until it is exhausted, and 

 thus secure a prize to the hunter, that would otherwise 

 have been lost. This manner of hunting the turkey, 



