258 THE WILD TURKEY. 



can eat the game that falls to his gun, without feeling 

 that he has killed a bird in a manner which is con- 

 sidered unfair both here and in America. 



Turkeys can be killed wholesale by destroying the 

 hen when her chicks are half-grown, and then calling 

 up the brood ; but this is rarely done by the back- 

 woods' hunters although they are not restricted as to 

 the quantity they may kill, nor the time at which it is 

 lawful to kill. But this I know, that the man who 

 would kill a doe in fawn, except accidentally, or would 

 destroy turkeys in the last-mentioned manner, would be 

 looked upon with as much dislike by American hunters 

 as he would by English game-preservers. 



By my last received accounts, game is more plentiful 

 than ever on the Texan prairies ; and, doubtless, many 

 English sportsmen will be tempted across the Atlantic. 

 For myself, I can only say — ' Would I were there I ' 



