MEXICAN TURKEY. 



183 



grove of lofty pines, the first branches of which were too 

 high for any missile to reach and do execution upon so 

 large a bird, save a bullet from a rifle. As my com- 

 panion and myself quietly sat upon the ground a quarter 

 of a mile away, waiting for the daylight to leave the sky, 

 we heard the Turkeys flying into the trees, and gobbling 

 at intervals as they settled themselves for the night. 

 Soon darkness spread her veil around us, and all sounds 

 from the roost ceased, and we commenced cautiously to 

 draw near our objective point. 



Soon we could distinguish the trees in which we knew 

 the birds were, but the branches were so far from the 

 ground that at first nothing could be seen that re- 

 sembled a Turkey. Gradually we drew near until we 

 stood beneath the overspreading limbs and close to the 

 trunk of the tree each had selected. No movement or 

 sound from above indicated that we had been observed 

 by the watchful birds, and now to our eyes, grown more 

 accustomed to the obscurity, some clumps and bunches 

 appeared upon the branches toward the sky. It was 

 almost impossible to tell what these were, whether 

 Turkeys squatting on the limbs, or masses of moss or 

 foliage. But the only way to find out was to shoot at 

 them, which we did. At the crack of the rifles came 

 numerous pit-pits and a stray gobble as the aroused 

 birds moved upon their perches and questioned this 

 unusual uproar. Their movements disclosed their forms 

 without mistake, and soon there was added to the noise 

 of the firearms, and the calls of the now thoroughly 

 startled birds, the crash of the falling Turkeys striking 

 the limbs as they descended, and then the heavy 

 " thump " as the body reached the ground. For a short 

 time confusion reigned. Unharmed birds began to 

 leave the trees, and the whir and beat of their wings 



'.111 



