CMAIPTEIK 



THE turkey is wondrous toothsome, whether it be 

 a choice bird from the fattening pen or one of those 

 kings of the feathered race, a grand wild fellow, slain 

 perhaps after a deal of toil and trouble in his native 

 haunt some Southern river bottom, Western scrub, 

 or lonely Canadian forest. The price paid by the 

 epicure for his wild bird would doubtless purchase 

 provisions enough to feast a family of the bread- 

 winning class on excellent fare for an entire week, 

 so the toilers must needs be content with a less 

 aristocratic fowl than Meleagris gallopavo. 



Year by year the wild birds are decreasing in 

 number, and the day is not far distant when the 

 turkey will no longer exist in the wild state save 

 in a few favored portions of the South and South- 

 west. Easily trapped and always valuable, either 

 for the market or for home consumption, it is 

 hardly surprising that the birds have been eagerly 

 sought and remorselessly slain wherever found, and 

 were it not for their keen sight and swift and endur- 

 ing running powers they would long ago have been 

 exterminated in certain accessible forests where a 

 few yet find a home. 



But while the turkey is one of the easiest birds 

 to trap, he is no fool to follow with rifle or gun 



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