29S KKWK FORRSTRPv S FIELD SI'OKTS. 



malt" Mills (luriii'jf the breeding season, and the facility with 

 whii'li they nriy lie pot-hunted at that time. 



'• Whilst s])eaVliiL,r of the sliooting of Turkeys," says he, " 1 

 hnv no lie.sltntion in relating- the following circumstance, which 

 haj)|)ened to rnvsell". While in searcli of gam?', one afternoon 

 late in autumn, when the males go together, and the females 

 are l>v themselves also, I heard the clucking of one of the latler, 

 and immediately Hnding her perched on a fence, made toward 

 her. Adsanciufj slowly and cautiously, I heard the yelping 

 notes of some gobblers, when I SiO[)ped and listened, in order 

 to ascertain the direction in which they came. I then ran to 

 meet the birds, hid mystdf by the side of a large fallen tree, 

 cocked my gun, and waited with impatience for a good oppor- 

 tunity. The gobblers continued yelping in answer to the 

 female, which all this time remained on the fence. I looked 

 over the log and saw about thirty fine Cocks advancing rather 

 cautiously toward the very spot where I lay concealed. They 

 came so near, tbat the light in their eyes could easdy be per- 

 ceived, when I fired one barrel, and killed three. The rest, 

 instead of Hying off, fell a strutting round their dead compa- 

 nions, and had I not looked on shooting again as murder with- 

 out necessity, I might have secured at least another. So I 

 showed myself, and marching up to the place where the dead 

 birds were, drove away the survivors." 



Had the kindly-disposed clucking female been absent, an im- 

 plement made, I believe, from the pinion-bone of the bird itself, 

 affords an imitation so perfect of the cry of the Turkey, that not 

 the unsuspicious birds alone are lured within reach of men far less 

 scrupulous than the worthy naturalist — men who would never 

 pause to consider whether the game could be used or not, but 

 who would go on killing, like the Tiger or the Grizzly Bear, for 

 the mere love of killing, without either skill or excitement — but 

 that these gallant imitative gobblers deceive one another, and 

 Ime up to their log some rival hunter, who, hearing the well- 

 simulated cry responsive to his own, and seeing the bushes 

 shake, speeda his unerring bullet to the mark, and pays the mu- 



