492 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOV^L AND SHORE BIRDS. 



known to have been captured in Massachusetts was shot on 

 Mt. Tom in the winter of 1850-51.1 



Thompson (1842) states that the Turkey had then become 

 exceedingly rare in all parts of New England, but that it still 

 bred on the mountains in the southern part of Vermont. - 



Wild Turkeys are believed to have existed on Mt. Tom and 

 Mt. Holyoke longer than anywhere else in Massachusetts. 

 There was a flock on Mt. Tom in 1842, a few in 1845 and a 

 single Turkey in 1851. Some remained on Mt. Holyoke nearly 

 as long.^ 



In the History of the Sesqui-Centennial Celebration of 

 South Hadley, the statement is made that a few Turkeys 

 were left on Mt. Holyoke later than 1851. It is said that a 

 year or two before the outbreak of the Civil War a party of 

 hunters from Springfield and Holyoke went to Rock Ferry, 

 and there divided, a part ascending the north peak of Mt. 

 Tom and the others crossing the river to Mt. Holyoke,. north 

 and east of the well-known roosting place of the birds. The 

 latter party beat the woods and drove the few surviving Turkeys 

 to the southerly end of the mountain, whence they took flight 

 for Mt. Tom, but before the poor creatures could alight, the 

 guns of the ambushed hunters had exterminated them. 



Wild Turkeys were reported as seen on Mt. Holyoke as 

 late as 1863, when one was said to have been killed by a 

 hunting party. A statement is made by Dr. T. M. Brewer 

 that some were shot at Montague and other towns in Franklin 

 County within a few years prior to 1874,^ but Mr. Robert O. 

 Morris of Springfield, who has investigated the evidence, be- 

 lieves that these later Turkeys had escaped from domestication, 

 and that the last of the native wild birds was that recorded as 

 killed in 1851. 



Since then the Wild Turkey has disappeared from Canada 

 and from the Atlantic seaboard, although a few are still to be 

 found in Virginia and other southern States, and it is still 

 common in some western localities. 



1 Howe, Reginald Heber, and Allen, Glover Morrill: Birds of Massachusetts, 1901, p. 133. 



2 Thompson, Zadock; History of Vermont, 1842, p. 101. 



3 Judd, Sylvester: History of Hadley, 1863, p. 358. 



< Baird, Brewer and Ridgway: North American Land Birds, 1905, Vol. IH, p. 405. 



