426 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



sible, late in the evening or early in the morning, to 

 pass under their roosts in a boat. If birds can be found 

 in such a situation there is opportunity for good shoot- 

 ing with a rifle. 



A very successful method of shooting them in Mis- 

 souri is to ride through the timber on horseback, for 

 the birds are not as shy of the approach of a rider as 

 they are of a footman. On the other hand, turkeys 

 alarmed are likely to make for swamps or down tim- 

 ber, where a horse cannot go. 



If a flock of turkeys is scattered in the evening, at 

 sundown, or frightened from its roost at night, the 

 hunter who can be at the place before sunrise is likely 

 to be able to get a number of shots by calling up the 

 birds. 



Shooting turkeys from the roost at night is a method 

 that does not present many features of sport. Track- 

 ing birds in the snow is good sport, and calls for work 

 and endurance. It is a very certain method of get- 

 ting turkeys, but is obviously to be practiced only where 

 snow falls. 



An excellent description of the country in which 

 turkeys are found in Arkansas, and of the opportuni- 

 ties which used to come to the turkey hunters there, 

 is found in an account written by J. E. London in the 

 spring of 1900. He says : 



"While I was engaged in having some assessment 

 work done on some mining lands in Newton County, 

 Ark., in December, 1899, I was informed by some boys 



