226 OUT OF DOORS. 



effect even upon the turkey. In former days the wild 

 turkey wandered in vast multitudes throughout the 

 northern parts of the United States, suffering but 

 little harm from the American Indian, and fearful 

 only of the natural enemies to which every wild being 

 is subject. Now, however, all is changed. First the 

 pioneers pushed their way into the interior; then 

 the squatters raised their log huts and made their 

 ' tomahawk improvements ; ' next came the settlers, 

 each house forming the centre of an ever-enlarging 

 circle, within which no beast could venture without 

 imminent risk of death. Villages sprang from settle- 

 ments, cities grew out of villages, and man took undis- 

 puted possession of the territory that was no longer a 

 home for game. 



A recent writer on American sports states that the 

 wild turkey is slowly but surely perishing. Few or 

 none are now to be seen north or east of Pennsylvania, 

 and only a very few in some of the remotest parts of 

 that State. In the wildest parts of Virginia a few 

 families yet linger, but they increase in number to- 

 wards Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Those 

 who wish to see this noble bird in perfection must go 

 to Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Ten- 

 nessee and even then, they will have to be well skilled 

 in the hunter's craft before they will come within 

 sight of the wary bird. Fortunately the turkey has 

 been acclimatised in many countries, so that there is 

 little real danger of its entire extinction. But though 



