The Wild Turkey 177 



This sounds very easy, but it is not every 

 sportsman who can call so perfectly as to deceive 

 the gobbler's keen ear. A single false note may 

 spoil the game, while a serious blunder will surely 

 send the bird to cover with truly marvellous speed, 

 and he will not return. The actual shooting is 

 easy, for lost nerve is about the only excuse for 

 missing with rifle or gun at such short range. In 

 justice therefore to " calling," I may say that the 

 skill necessary to deceive the bird, together with 

 the wary patience required, are sufficient to raise 

 it above the level of pot-hunting. 



But the sport of sports with the turkey is track- 

 ing in the snow. It is difficult, frequently down- 

 right hard work, and it will test a man's woodcraft 

 to the utmost ; but then, a fairly earned gobbler is 

 nobler quarry than a buck. 



Turkey tracking in great woodlands, especially 

 when the birds are few, is a blending of the un- 

 expected with the might-have-been. The slight- 

 est miscalculation or accident may ruin one's 

 chance for a day, while it is quite possible to 

 follow a big gobbler from a wintry dawn to dusk 

 and not obtain one fair chance at him. 



The ideal day for tracking seldom comes. If I 

 were to name the conditions they should be : first, 

 a cold snap to secure every bush pond and marshy 

 bit with ice that would bear a man's weight, then 

 a six-inch snowfall, followed by one of those 



