138 PHASIANID^E. 



bulk and small expanse of wing being obstacles to any 

 lengthened journey in the air. 



The Wild-turkey, though so shy, is not unfrequently 

 found in forests within reach of cultivated ground, 

 especially late in the year, when wild-fruit and berries 

 have become scarce, its partiality for the settler's grain 

 being the inducement thus to brave the neighbourhood 

 of man. In severe winters too in the early morning, 

 when no one is stirring, they will occasionally venture 

 even into the farm-yards in search of corn. 



Though the immigrant farmer cannot be blamed for 

 not preserving these birds, which are at times exceed- 

 ingly destructive to his crops of maize and oats, it is 

 to be regretted that they should be wantonly killed at 

 a season when they are useless ; for by sparing them a 

 few months he might supply his table with delicious 

 food, and in the interim they could not eat more than 

 the domesticated ones fattened at home. But every 

 possible device is resorted to by the uneducated that can 

 assist in the work of gradual extinction. The landlords 

 of the outlying taverns catch them alive with the object 

 of enticing customers, a number of whom pay so much a 

 head for each shot with the rifle at an unfortunate bird, 

 which is secured at a certain distance, close behind the 

 trunk of a tree sufficiently large to conceal all but its 

 head. Whole flocks are sometimes caught in a cage made 



