242 



THE WILD TURKEY. 





WILD TURKEY COCK. 



The wild Turkey is a native of North America, and may still 

 be found in some places, quite numerous. They were formerly 

 scattered over the whole country, to some extent, but as the 

 forests fell before the axe, and civilization advanced, this noble 

 bird of the wilderness was exterminated, or driven to more 

 remote and secluded places. At the period when the West was 

 first settled by whites, the wild turkey was found in numerous 

 flocks in all the wooded country in the vicinity, of the Missis- 

 sippi valley ; and perhaps there is no game that is more 

 exciting to the hunter. A hundred of these majestic birds 

 would in those times rise on the wing before the hunter, with 

 rifle in hand, fly into the surrounding trees without fear, and 

 as- a lusty old gobbler fell at the crack of the rifle, gobble, gob- 

 ble, gobble, w r as heard on every side, and the hunter had only 



