232 THE WILD TURKET. 



wild cats, for these ^ varmint ' are wide awake, and, 

 knowing full well the meaning of the incessant outcry 

 which has been going on for a day or two on the oppo- 

 site side, are on the look out for waifs and strays. If 

 there be a squatter or hunter in the neighbourhood he 

 too will be on the look out, and, judging from past 

 experience whereabouts the birds will alight on his 

 side of the stream, will take measures accordingly, and 

 manage to secure a good number of them. 



During the autumn and winter the turkeys remain 

 together in these flocks. In February, as before men- 

 tioned, they begin to experience the impulse of pro- 

 pagation. 



The wild turkey seems filled with the instinct of self- 

 preservation, beiog the shyest and wariest of all game 

 found in the American continent. In districts where 

 the foot of hunter has rarely trod, and where, conse- 

 quently, the birds are comparatively unmolested, he 

 who goes in pursuit of them must possess some know- 

 ledge of the habits of the bird and its usual haunts if 

 he hopes for success. But where the haunts of the 

 turkey are surrounded by plantations, they become so 

 wild, from being so frequently hunted, that it is almost 

 impossible for the hunter to get within gunshot. Only 

 a veteran in the art has any chance of success. It is 

 recorded of an old hunter that he once chased a turkev 

 regularly for three years, only catching sight of the 

 bird twice, although he used the ^ call ' with which they 



