CHAPTER III. 



THE TURKEYS. 



JjEFORE the epoch of my adventurous excursions 

 into the midst of the Redskins of the American 

 prairie, I had never seen the wild turkey ex- 

 cept in the streets of New York, exhibited in 

 the shop of a poulterer or provision-merchant, or hanging 

 over the shoulder of a Yankee farmer, who had come to 

 the market of the great city to dispose of the splendid 

 birds he had killed on his own land. Of course, I was 

 well aware that turkeys were the savouriest game in 

 North America; but they had never come within the range 



