WILD TURKEY. I09 



and about as wide, and four or five feet long with a slope from 

 ihe outer end, deepening to the middle ; then lay across it the rail. 

 Lay one rail as the width of the pen and two rails as the length 

 (ordinary fence rails, ten to eleven feet long), building the height 

 of eight or ten rails, and covering it over with the same sort of 

 stuff, sufficiently close to prevent the turkeys from getting out 

 when once in. A few crcjiss rails as weight to keep the top down 

 is always necessary, for when alarmed at the approach of the 

 trapper it will take a good amount of weight to keep them in 

 prison. Now, having completed your pen, take care to remove 

 and cover up every vestige of the freshness of your operation, 

 throwing in a light covering of dry leaves in the trench you have 

 made under the pen. Then scatter more of the same kind of 

 grain before baited with, under the fence and a larger quantity in 

 the pen. It may be some days before the turkeys will venture up 

 — but they will, if not often visited by the huntsmen. When they 

 have made themselves somewhat famihar with it, and get up 

 courage and get on the train of bait leading to the mouth of the 

 trench, with heads down eagerly picking up the grain, they will 

 thus go under the fence in quest of food, not raising up till inside. 

 Once inside (perhaps a half dozen), they begin to look up for a 

 way of escape, never for a moment looking down for a place to 

 get out. Not seeming to know how they got in, they walk round 

 and round, and frequently walk or hop over the trench through 

 which they entered. The trapper then has them at his will and 

 may take them at his pleasure. Another mode is to get them to 

 a bait. Build a blind of old brush and cover for the hunter to sit 

 in, entirely concealed from all quarters ; making a straight line of 

 bait, and all in a circumscribed distance from the blind, so as when 

 the turkeys come to feed all will be in a line, which they will do if 

 the bait is properly laid. When they are picking up the food he 

 watches his opportunity to get as many heads together as possible 

 while down, and using No. 6 shot he may get several at a shot. 



Yet another mode of hunting is in use, viz : hunting with dogs 

 ■ — pointers or setters are best, because more easily trained. The 

 dogs find and flush the turkeys. Taking to the high trees, keeping 

 an eye on the dogs while they are running around barking at the 

 turkeys up the tree, they being so much engaged in watching the 



