10 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 
ment to “ the settler,” will shelter them from the rifle; 
and in the rich productions of the soil, they find a super- 
abundance of food. 
The same obscurity, however, that protects them, 
leaves the hole of the wildcat in peace; and this bitter 
enemy of the turkey, wars upon it, and makes its life one 
of cunning and care. Nor, is its finely-flavored meat un- 
appreciated by other destroyers, as the fox often makes 
the turkey an evening meal, while the weasel contents 
itself with the little chicks. The nest, however, may 
have been made, and the young birds may have in peace 
broken the shell, and frightened at their own piping 
notes, hidden instinctively away, when the Mississippi 
will rise, bearing upon its surface the waters of a thou- 
sand floods, swell within its narrow banks, and overflow 
the lowlands. The young bird, unable to fly, and too 
delicate to resist the influence of the wet, sickens and 
dies. 
Upon the dryness of the season, therefore, the tur- 
key-hunter builds his hopes of the plentifulness of the 
game. 
Independent of the pernicious influence of unfavora- 
ble seasons, or the devastation of the wild turkey by 
destructive animals, their numbers are also annually 
lessened by the skill of the pioneer and backwoodsman, 
and in but comparatively a few more years the bird must 
have, as a denizen of our border settlements, only a tra- 
ditionary existence ; for the turkey is not migratory in 
