224 FIELD SHOOTING. 



and a cross of the wild gobbler with tame hen- 

 turkeys always improves the flock in size and 

 excellence. 



At one time the wild turkey was plentiful all 

 over this country, from Texas to Canada, and 

 from the eastern seaboard to the peaks of the 

 Rocky Mountains, in such localities as furnished 

 it with its favorite sorts of food and afforded 

 the cover in which it delights. Now, however, it 

 is hardly to be met with to the eastward of West 

 Virginia, and it cannot be said to be still abun- 

 dant in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, 

 etc. In those States wild turkeys were once very 

 plentiful, and a considerable number are still to be 

 found in a few localities in each. In Iowa, Mis- 

 souri, etc., there are more wild turkeys now than 

 in the States first mentioned. One would suppose 

 there must still be a few in the western parts of 

 New York and Pennsylvania, but J am not certain 

 that there are. 



Tha wild turkey is a bird of the forest rather 

 than of the prairies or the plains. It makes its 

 haunts in timber-land, large pieces of woods, and 

 groves, and betakes itself to thick brush and the 

 neighborhood of impassable swamps to breed. It 

 comes out, however, at night or at earliest dawn, 



