134 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



the manner of a half-starved sow), or at any attempt to put 

 his head down. 



After a few ineffectual efforts which my steed made, 

 showing an inclination to differ from me in opinion, we 

 jogged on comfortably for several miles along the edge of 

 prairie and timber, the usual markings of water - courses. 

 The sun was near midday, and still no game was to be 

 seen. In quiet, retired situations like this, such is an un- 

 healthy sign; for game is not in the habit of leaving a 

 favorite feeding -ground without reason. Discouraged at 

 want of success, I dismounted, fastening up Bucephalus, 

 and took my pipe again into confidence. On an old rotten 

 limb of a partially decayed button-wood a family of red- 

 headed woodpeckers were busily at work, making the 

 woods echo with the violence of their tapping. Watching 

 the sprightly movements of these active little beauties, I 

 became totally absorbed in their energetic pursuits, when a 

 half-snort and uneasy movement on the part of my horse 

 caused me to look round ; and well I did so, for about forty 

 yards off, leisurely feeding, were about thirty full-grown 

 wild turkeys. My smooth-bore had ball in each barrel, but 

 as I had two or three loads of buck-shot in my pouch, I 

 determined to substitute it. To the shelter of a log, like a 

 snake, I glided, to perform the change of missiles, and was 

 about to draw the last fragment of myself out of sight, 

 when the confounded warning of a rattlesnake sounded so 

 close, that I involuntarily gave a jump to avoid the threat- 

 ening danger, thus exposing myself to the turkeys, who took 

 wing, without affording me a chance of a shot ; so turkey- 

 less I was compelled to remain ; but you may bet that snake 

 never scared any one afterward. He was one of the largest 

 and most venomous of his family, being quite five feet long, 

 as yellow as gold along the abdomen, and possessed of six- 

 teen rattles. He belonged to the variety which generally 



