CHAPTER IL 

 THE WILD TURKEY (Meleagris ffallopavo). 



BY GEORGE ENTT. 



Every American has heard of these birds, and not a few 

 have seen them hanging in the market stalls of the large 

 cities in some parts of the country, while a much smaller 

 number have seen them alive in all the glory of their 

 woody surroundings. And though he has never seen one 

 alive or helped to kill or eat one, I believe there is not an 

 American to-day who is not proud of this king of the for- 

 est. And well may we all be proud of our Wild turkeys, 

 for of all of our useful birds it is the only one domesti- 

 cated and made to serve our purpose to the fullest extent. 

 Once found all along the Atlantic coast, all through the 

 territory now known as Mexico and the Central American 

 States, and in the great interior plain of North America, 

 the turkey in a state of nature is to-day limited to the 

 mountainous regions of New York and Pennslyvania, Vir- 

 ginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, a few in Kentucky, some 

 parts of the Gulf States, and rare sections of the Western 

 States. Like all game, it is rapidly giving way to the in- 

 cessant warfare of dogs, guns and hunters. The loggers go 

 into the forest, followed soon by the farmer and his boys, 

 and the poor turkeys lose their right to the land and to 

 their claim on life. Thus it goes on all sides, and it will 

 not be many years before they become almost as much of 

 a rarity as a wild buffalo ranging his Western prairies. 

 The habits of the turkey have not changed much by do- 

 mestication. The bird has become less shy and timid, but 

 hardly less watchful. It nests now along a fence, or in a 

 bunch of weeds, grass or briers, where formerly it sought 



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