138 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



plantation across the waters should have become involved in so 

 much obscurity that more than one eminent author has striven to 

 establish an Asiatic or African origin for it. 



But such efforts at imposition could not long stand before the 

 ever-ready pen of the closely-investigating Buffon, who soon, by 

 a few researches, cleared away the mist by which these specious 

 writers had enveloped the early history of the bird, and proclaimed 

 it a fowl indigenous to the wilds of America alone. 



Prescott, in his Conquest of Mexico, makes frequent mention of 

 the turkey, not only in its wild state, but as domesticated among 

 the Aztecs ; in fact, it was more common than any other kind of 

 poultry among this strange people. And as a proof of this asser- 

 tion we need only state that, along with other items enumerated 

 in a list of yearly household expenditures of the Tezcucan monarch, 

 was an almost incredible number of turkeys, being no less than 

 eight thousand. 



THEIR FLESH. 



The flesh of the wild turkey assimilates very closely to that of 

 the tame fowl, but is darker, more juicy, and, of course, has more 

 of a game flavor. 



TRAPPING TURKEYS. 



In parts of the country where these birds are numerous, the 

 most effectual mode to procure a supply is to catch them in traps, 

 or rather pens. 



Audubon states that tney are constructed thus: "Young trees 

 of four or five inches in diameter are cut down and divided into 

 pieces of the length of twelve or fourteen feet. Two of these are 

 laid on the ground, parallel to each other, at a distance of ten or 

 twelve feet. Two other pieces are laid across the ends of these, at 

 right angles to them; and in this manner successive layers are 

 added, until the fabric is raised to the height of four feet. It is 

 then covered with similar pieces of wood, placed three or four 

 inches apart, and loaded with one or two heavy logs to render the 



