TURKEY SHOOTING 439 



canyon, came faint but unmistakable turkey notes, 

 which started me on a run in that direction. A few 

 minutes later I cautiously approached the place, where 

 probably over a hundred and fifty turkeys, all females 

 and young of the year, were noisily trying to settle 

 themselves for the night. They occupied the tops of 

 tall pines for about two hundred yards along one of 

 the steep walls of the canyon. In many of the trees 

 there were only two or three turkeys, but some of the 

 larger ones, and especially those with many dead 

 branches, contained from five to ten birds. Many of 

 them sat as closely together as possible, and constantly 

 craned their necks about, squawking, crowding each 

 other, and struggling for places. They flew frequently 

 from tree to tree, and sometimes a bird alighting clum- 

 sily on a crowded branch would knock off one or two 

 others, which would fly noisily to other places. At 

 first the disorder seemed to be general, and most of 

 the birds were crowding, or being crowded, and were 

 uttering loud cries of quit, quit, quit, with many modu- 

 lations, depending apparently upon the degree of ex- 

 citement. They rapidly became quieter, however, until 

 by the time it was dark they were settled for the night. 

 When all was still I rose from the cover where I had 

 been concealed, and carefully noting the locality, left 

 the birds undisturbed, and picked my way across sev- 

 eral small canyons into camp. The hunter came in 

 soon afterward, and a comparison of notes showed that 

 we had located the same roost, he having come up 

 the canyon, while I went down, and each had decided 



