10 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



ment to " the settler," will shelter them from the rifle ; 

 and in the rich productions of the soil, they find a super- 

 abundance of food. 



The same obscurity, however, that protects them, 

 leaves the hole of the wildcat in peace ; and this bitter 

 enemy of the turkey, wars upon it, and makes its life one 

 of cunning and care. Nor, is its finely-flavored meat un- 

 appreciated by other destroyers, as the fox often makes 

 the turkey an evening meal, while the weasel contents 

 itself with the little chicks. The nest, however, may 

 have been made, and the young birds may have in peace 

 broken the shell, and frightened at their own piping 

 notes, hidden instinctively away, when the Mississippi 

 will rise, bearing upon its surface the waters of a thou- 

 sand floods, swell within its narrow banks, and overflow 

 the lowlands. The young bird, unable to fly, and too 

 delicate to resist the influence of the wet, sickens and 



dies. 



Upon the dryness of the season, therefore, the tur- 

 key-hunter builds his hopes of the plentifulness of the 

 game. 



Independent of the pernicious influence of unfavora- 

 ble seasons, or the devastation of the wild turkey by 

 destructive animals, their numbers are also annually 

 lessened by the skill of the pioneer and backwoodsman, 

 and in but comparatively a few more years the bird must 

 have, as a denizen of our border settlements, only a tra- 

 ditionary existence ; for the turkey is not migratory in 



