WILD TURKEY. 11 



they often fly so far as to be lost to the hunter. During winter many of 

 our real hunters shoot them by moonlight, on the roosts, where these birds 

 will frequently stand a repetition of the reports of a rifle, although they 

 would fly from the attack of an owl, or even perhaps from his presence. 

 Thus sometimes nearly a whole flock is secured by men capable of using 

 these guns in such circumstances. They are often destroyed in great 

 numbers when most worthless, that is, early in the fall or autumn, when 

 many are killed in their attempt to cross the rivers, or immediately after 

 they reach the shore. 



Whilst speaking of the shooting of Turkeys, I feel no hesitation irfre- 

 lating the following occurrence, which happened to myself. While in 

 search of game, one afternoon late in autumn, when the males go toge- 

 ther, and the females are by themselves also, I heard the clucking of one 

 of the latter, and immediately finding her perched on a fence, made to- 

 wards her. Advancing slowly and cautiously, I heard the yelping notes 

 of some gobblers, when I stopped and listened in order to ascertain the 

 direction in which they came. I then ran to meet the birds, hid myself 

 by the side of a large fallen tree, cocked my gun, and waited with im- 

 patience for a good opportunity. The gobblers continued yelping in 

 answer to the female, which all this while remained on the fence. I 

 looked over the log and saw about thirty fine cocks advancing rather 

 cavitiously towards the very spot where I lay concealed. They came so 

 near that the light in their eyes could easily be perceived, when I fired one 

 barrel, and killed three. The rest, instead of flying off, fell a strutting 

 around their dead companions, and had I not looked on shooting again 

 as murder without necessity, I might have secured at least another. So 

 I shewed myself, and marcliing to the place where the dead birds were, 

 drove away the survivors. I may also mention, that a friend of mine 

 shot a fine hen, from his horse, with a pistol, as the poor thing was 

 probably returning to her nest to lay. 



Should you, good-natured reader, be a sportsman, and now and then 

 have been fortunate in the exercise of your craft, the following incident, 

 which I shall relate to you as I had it from the mouth of an honest 

 farmer, may prove interesting. Turkeys were very abundant in his 

 neighbourhood, and, resorting to his corn fields, at the period when the 

 maize had just shot up from the ground, destroyed great quantities of it. 

 This induced him to swear vengeance against the species. He cut a long 

 trench in a favourable situation, put a great quantity of corn in it, and 



