TURKEY-HUNTING. 7 



and are immediately lost to view. If the cock sees danger he 

 lowers his body to the height of a chicken's, and, followed by his 

 harem, runs through the brush, with a speed and silentness that 

 renders pursuit futile unless by a fast and trained turkey-dog. 



I remember a pretty incident in connection with a turkey hen 

 demonstrating a knowledge of character on her part. 



I had taken my stand on the end of St. Eosas Island, off 

 Pensacola, to watch for deer that the hounds were driving. After 

 my arrival a turkey hen came skimming to the ground, and 

 presently walked toward a knoll of grass a few yards from my 

 place of concealment. Her anxious look and her feigned attitude 

 of indifference immediately showed that she was near her nest, and 

 taking a pocket spy -glass I carried with me to watch the water 

 channels, I presently saw her settle herself down among some low 

 willows, until nothing but her head appeared. 



Shortly afterward a fox came by, and coming across the trail 

 of the turkey he turned short about, and throwing up his sharp 

 nose, scented the different spears of grass the bird had touched, 

 and then taking up her trail, commenced following it slowly and 

 cautiously toward where she was sitting. With noiseless foot and 

 undulating body he wound along in the trail, when suddenly, to 

 my surprise, I saw the turkey hen leave her willow clump, and 

 returning on her own trail, walk directly toward the fox. She 

 picked hither and thither, in a nonchalant manner, and when 

 within some ten or fifteen yards of her enemy, who had crouched 

 in the sparse grass when he first saw her coming, she diverged 

 slowly to the right, and the fox, as she turned aside, recommenced 

 his crawlings, keeping his eye on the bird and leaving the trail he 

 had been previously following. In this way they progressed some 

 hundred yards in a direction contrary to her nest, when coming 

 near a low tree, with a soft chuckle, which seemed to say, as plain 

 as accent could make it, " What a fool you are ! " she flitted up in 

 the tree. 



The fox being then on open ground, at once knew himself dis- 

 covered, and rising from his crouching position, after one or two 

 longing looks, and a whimper of disappointment, trotted over the 

 sandhills, and was lost to sight. 



