704 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



AOW-AOW THE LIMPKIN CRIES, LIKE SOMEONE HAVING A TOOTH PULLED 



The weird sound may be the origin of many a superstition connected with Florida's swamps 

 and savannas, where this noisy "crying bird" lives. When flying, the limpkin's wings flap jerkily 

 up and down like those of a mechanical toy. The long-legged wader's favorite food is a large 

 fresh-water snail, which it extracts without breaking the shell. 



Fortunately for us, Colonel Thompson 

 had directed his superintendent, Albert 

 Stringer, to build a blind of pine boughs two 

 weeks before our arrival, so that the tur- 

 keys would have time to get accustomed 

 to it. 



Corn and peanuts were scattered some 20 

 yards in front of the blind each day, and 

 when we arrived we found many signs of 

 turkeys, deer, quail, squirrels, and mourn- 

 ing doves that had been frequenting the 

 spot. 



NOT A GOOD GOBBLING MORNING 



The day before we planned to make our 

 record the sound truck was driven into the 

 blind and completely concealed; the cable 

 was stretched 250 feet to another blind 

 where I could sit with Mr. Stoddard and 

 aim the sound reflector at the gobblers 

 when they should come off their roosts and 

 advance toward the field. In the hope of 

 attracting a gobbler within recording range, 



Stoddard armed himself with his turkey 

 call and imitated the sound of a hen turkey. 



But turkeys are capricious birds. Tur- 

 key hunters will tell you that certain days 

 are "good gobbling mornings," and on other 

 days not a gobble will be heard. Not one 

 of the three days at our disposal proved to 

 be a good gobbling morning and we had 

 to content ourselves with mediocre sound, 

 though we obtained some good film of a 

 flock of hen turkeys and two magnificent 

 old gobblers (page 701). 



It was interesting to watch from ambush 

 their varying responses to the different 

 morning sounds. To most they paid slight 

 attention, but at anything suggestive of 

 human presence they were extremely wary. 

 Instantaneously they would change from 

 full display, when they were the most con- 

 spicuous objects on the landscape, to sleek, 

 trim creatures that miraculously disap- 

 peared into their environinent, as if they 

 had been swallowed by the earth. 



