430 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



again we were chagrined to see George coming down 

 the hill, trailing the three that had joined ours ; but as 

 age deserved consideration, we let him go in advance. 



"Thus we came to a bottom covered with a growth 

 of hazel brush, grape-vines and weeds, an ideal hiding 

 place for game. A cautious approach, and George 

 looked over a brush pile and saw the turkeys sitting 

 seventy-five or eighty yards away. It was impossible 

 to approach closer, and George saluted them with both 

 barrels, but got nothing. We marked the direction 

 they took, and followed, George alone, and Riley and 

 I after a huge one I had spotted. We struck a lively 

 canter and ran quite a distance, as we knew he would 

 run a long way before he tired and tried to hide. His 

 tracks indicated that he was getting tired, so we slowed 

 up and proceeded cautiously. Every fallen tree-top 

 was closely scanned. The tracks led down hill toward 

 a monster tree blown down during the summer, and 

 which still had its leaves on, forming a splendid hiding 

 place. We both recognized this immediately, and 

 started to go one on each side of the tree-top. I 

 stooped to go under the body, which lay three or four 

 feet off the ground, when out burst the turkey. I 

 dropped to get a view of him, and fired one shot as he 

 pitched down hill. We ran across the ravine, and at 

 the top of the next bluff found tracks where a turkey 

 had alighted and departed in hot haste. A run of half 

 a mile down the backbone of the hill, and we found 

 the turkey had flown. 



"Sadly we retraced our steps, while I caressed a 



