ANIMAL LIFE IN OKLAHOMA. 15 



them in the way of beauty or interest, but their persistent destruction 

 of insects represents a saving to the State that should never be orer- 

 looked. 



BIRDS. 



GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Oklahoma has a wealth of bird life of which she may be justly 

 proud. Native birds occur here in abundance throughout the year, our 

 rivers and lakes invite the migratory water fowls that annually pass this 

 way, an J the wooded streams and timbered hills ofEer shelter to countless 

 birds that come here every year to nest and rear their young. The bird 

 population is, of course, not as large as it formerly was, but while 

 many valuable and beautiful birds have been reduced and driven to 

 the verge of extinction, only a few species have as yet been entirely 

 lost, and the general awakening of interest in bird life throughout the 

 State marks the beginning of a new and brighter day for our feathered 

 friends. We may confidently expect them in greater numbers as the 

 forces for their protection are taken over by willing hands and carried 

 into new and broader fields. 



WILD TUEKEYS. 



Wild turkeys, like many of the larger native animals, formed no 

 small part of the food supply of the pioneers, and in this way they have 

 rendered a service of importance in the development of the State. These 

 birds were at one time very numerous, but were so easily approached and 

 shot that they were annually slaughtered in great numbers. It was 

 not uncommon in the early days to see as many as five hundred of these 

 splendid birds in a single bunch, and one hunter reports having seen a 

 solid, unbroken acre of turkeys. Their habit of roosting in trees prob- 

 ably contributed in a large ineasure to their destruction. Hunters would 

 locate a hunch, and after the turkeys had flown into the trees for the night, 

 would walk quietly under them, where their large bodies outlined against 

 the sky made an easy mark for a rifle. A man from Jefferson, with 

 two companions, thus killed eighteen turkeys in one evening. A few wild 

 turkeys are yet free in the mountainous regions of the State, but unless 

 they receive legal protection it will be only a short time, at the present 

 rate of destruction, until they are vanquished. Then we will have only 

 the flock in the Wichita Preserve, which is as tame and fearless as 

 poultry. 



PRAIRIE CHICKENS. 



We have left only a pitiful remnant of prairie chickens. 'They 

 have been driven from the plains and rolling sand hills where they 

 normally thrive, into wild retreats where they can secure some measure 

 of protection from the constant illegal war that is being waged against 

 them. A few flocks may yet be found in the Panhandle district, and 

 a small number have in some way kept alive in Ellis County, but they 

 represent only a small portion of what formerly existed here. Flocks 

 of a thousand birds were sometimes reported, and a hunter with two 



