394 GIGANTIC TURKEYS. 



all the ancient accounts of the New World which have 

 been transmitted to posterity, the wild turkey is 

 spoken of with admiration. * Everywhere it seems to 

 have existed in great abundance, and personally we 

 are inclined to regard it as more properly speaking 

 a habitant of tropical regions rather than of the 

 temperate zone: because the finest and heaviest birds 

 are always met with within, or near, the tropic. For 

 instance on the authority of Colonel Dodge the weight 

 of the wild turkey in the U. States is put at from 20 

 to 25 Ibs, and as regards its abundance in former days, 

 this officer mentions that being one night encamped 

 near an immense turkey roost, in Texas, four or five 

 of his men, armed only with very inferior weapons, 

 bagged 82 birds in a couple of hours. On another 

 occasion a soldier bagged 26 from one tree without 

 changing his position, f But unfortunately the dates of 

 these events are not given, nor are any details given 

 of the size or weight of the birds. 



Now, as regards the comparative weight of wild 

 turkeys in the United States and warmer lands, we 

 have no hesitation in asserting that in Mexico and 

 other tropical parts their average weight must be 

 considerably greater than in the United States, gener- 

 ally speaking. Captain Townshend for instance states 

 that in Florida, a State possessing an almost tropical 

 climate, their weight is frequently from 30 to 50 Ibs, 

 and he mentions having himself bagged one which 



* See for instance La general Natural Historia de las Indias, 

 por Don Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez (1478 1557), 

 Published 1527, Cap. xxxvi. 



t The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, by Col. Richd J. Dodge, 

 U.S.A., 1877, PP- 23 27. 



