NOTE ON THE WILD TURKEY. 143 



FAMILY MELEAGRIDID^: TURKEYS. 



NOTE ON THE WILD TURKEY. 



There is no longer a doubt of the extirpation of this 

 noble bird in New England. I have been at some pains 

 to examine the records, and am satisfied of its entire 

 extinction. A few words will, however, be pertinent 

 to the history of the case. 



The bird was formerly abundant in southern New 

 England, as attested by all the earlier writings which 

 touch upon the case. Their number must have been 

 so much thinned out during the last century that the 

 period of their plenty ceased about the beginning of the 

 present, if not somewhat earlier. 



The Rev. Mr. Linsley's record is especially notewor- 

 thy. Writing in 1843, he says : " The last Wild Turkey 

 that I have known in New England was taken by a re- 

 lative of mine, about thirty years since, on Totoket 

 Mountain, in Northford. It was overtaken in a deep 

 snow, and thereby outrun." (Am. Jour. Sci., xliv, 1843, 

 p. 264.) 



About the same time Zadock Thompson represented 

 that Turkeys continued to visit and breed upon the 

 mountains in southern parts of Vermont. (Hist. Ver- 

 mont, 1842, p. 101.) 



The Turkey appears to have lingered longest in the 

 mountainous parts of Massachusetts. Though Prof. 

 Emmons considered it nearly extinct in that State in 

 1833, it was said by Prof. Hitchcock to be at that time 

 " frequently " found on Mt. Holyoke (Rep. Geol. etc., 

 Mass., 1833, p. 549). 



