122 lewis' AMERICAN" SPORTSMAN". 



was only accomplished at a great expense of time, patience, and 

 real labor; of all this, however, we need not speak, as the 

 Sportsman, no doubt, in his own mind, was richly repaid for all 

 he endured. 



In the wilder portions of Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, 

 Mississippi, and Alabama, they are still to be found in some 

 abundance, are more scarce in Georgia, Florida, and the Caro- 

 linas. 



We are greatly indebted to our esteemed friend Doctor E. 

 Percy Sargent, who resides in the neighborhood of Natchez, 

 and devotes much of his leisure to shooting and the study of 

 the habits of our Game Birds, for a letter containing much use- 

 ful as well as practical information regarding the Wild Turkey. 

 From this article, so kindly furnished us by the Doctor, we shall, 

 in the course of this compilation, make some considerable 

 extracts, as well as from Audubon, to whom we owe nearly all 

 our knowledge of the Bird under consideration ; for we must 

 frankly confess that our own opportunities of studying them, 

 in their native haunts, have been very prescribed. 



The Doctor informs us that Wild Turkeys are still met 

 with, in small numbers, in the Cypress Swamps, thick forests, 

 and wild ridges of the neighborhood away from Natchez. They 

 are, of course, very wary, cunning, and watchful of the approach 

 of man, and are only to be killed by those long experienced in 

 hunting them, and practically familiar with their habits and 

 secret haunts. Although these Fowl, in the settled districts, 

 occasionally come out into the open meadows and frequent the 

 grain-fields, still, they generally secrete themselves in the depths 

 of the forests, and are seldom to be approached within gunshot, 

 save when on the roost at early dawn, or when drawn into am- 

 bush by the deceptive call of the Huntsman. 



INCUBATION. 



The season devoted by the Wild Turkey to propagation and 

 incubation, is a very interesting period for the lover of natural 

 history to study the habits and characteristics of this truly 

 magnificent Bird. 



These promptings of nature to perpetuate her creations, are 



