TURKEY SHOOTING. 



297 



TURKEY SHOOTING. 



NDOUBTEDLY the most deli- 

 cious, as it is the largest and no- 

 blest, of all gallinaceous game, 

 there is yet litlle sport in its pur- 



suit, and beyond mere proficiency 

 with the rifle, little skill required 

 to kill it. The case is the same 

 with this, as with all other wild and 

 forest-haunting fowls and animals. 

 In the size of the game, and its variety, or its excellence, de- 

 pends all the excitement of its pursuit and capture. It is 

 extremely wild and wary, running in flocks when alarmed, at 

 such a rate that it is difficult for a speedy dog to overtake it, 

 and never, so far as I have heard or read, lying close enough to 

 allow itself to be stood by Pointers or Setters, or to be shot on 

 the wing. 



The ways adopted for shooting it, are, therefore, all depen- 

 dent on ambush or stratagem, the shooter either concealing him- 

 self in some place which commands a view of the spots on 

 which they are in the habit of scratching and removing the dry 

 leaves, in order to pick up their food, or making use of a sort 

 of pipe or call, by which the cry or yelp, as it is termed, of the 

 female may be simulated so exactly, as to bring the old males, 

 or gobblers, within gunshot, almost unfailingly. Mr, Audubon 

 relates an occurrence which befel himself, indicating the singu- 

 lar boldness, if it should not rather be called stupidity, of the 



