292 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



streams in eastern central Nebraska forty or fifty years 

 ago: 



"There were a good many wild turkeys here on the 

 Loup River, the Elkhorn and Shell Creek when we 

 came here. Ed. Chambers tells me they were often 

 seen on the Niobrara River in early days say in 1877. 

 I do not recall that any turkeys were seen when the 

 Pawnee scouts were out in 1867, guarding the track 

 layers on the plains toward the mountains, but at that 

 time turkeys were found on the Platte River near old 

 Ft. McPherson not far below the forks of the Platte." 



In August, 1909, Forest and Stream printed a letter 

 from me inquiring as to the western range of the wild 

 turkey. This inquiry brought out some extremely in- 

 teresting information which indicates that the former 

 range of the turkey extended regularly to South 

 Dakota. In my letter I asked what the northern and 

 western range of the turkey was, and whether any of 

 Forest and Stream's correspondents had ever known of 

 its being found in the Black Hills. In response to this 

 Sandy Griswold, of Omaha, Neb., sent to Forest and 

 Stream a letter, from which I quote the essential para- 

 graphs : 



"The query whether wild turkeys ever got as far 

 West as the Black Hills I am unable to answer; I do 

 know, however, that no longer ago than 1894 they had 

 found their way as far as the foothills this side of the 

 Black Hills in South Dakota. 



"I was camped on the Lake Creek marshes that fall, 

 duck shooting, and on the third of November Alfred 



