490 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Dr. Lewis (1855) says that in former times they wandered 

 in vast armies from one end of our country to the other; but 

 even in his day scarce one was to be found on the whole 

 northern Atlantic sea-coast.^ 



In the west it was still numerous, however, for some time 

 after the transcontinental railroads were built, and Col. W. F. 

 Cody (Buffalo Bill), who acted as a scout for the United States 

 army, speaks of a grand Turkey round-up, in which two or 

 three hundred soldiers surrounded a grove of timber, where 

 they killed, with guns, clubs and stones, from four hundred 

 to five hundred of these birds. ^ 



"Nessmuk" writes that on a long tramp in the woods of 

 Michigan, which must have occurred some time during the 

 middle of the last century, he met with droves of Wild 

 Turkeys, and on one occasion saw a great army of these birds 

 extending through the woods as far as he could see in front 

 and on both sides.^ 



From these comparatively recent experiences in the west 

 we may get some idea of the number of Turkeys that once 

 lived in our Massachusetts woods. Turkeys were shot and 

 trapped at all seasons. 



Beverly (1720) writes: "they have many pretty devices 

 besides the gun to take wild turkeys; and among others, a 

 friend of mine invented a great trap, wherein he at times 

 caught many turkeys and particularly seventeen at one time." * 



Shooting and trapping the birds at all times soon had its 

 inevitable effect, and the Turkey retired rapidly before the 

 advance of settlement, and soon it could be found only in the 

 wildest parts of the country. 



Josselyn (1672, Massachusetts) says: "I have also seen 

 threescore broods of young Turkies on the side of a marsh, 

 sunning of themselves in a morning betimes, but this was 

 thirty years since, the English and the Indians having now 

 destroyed the breed, so that 'tis very rare to meet with a wild 

 Turkic in the Woods." ^ 



1 Lewis, Elisha J.: The American Sportsman, 1855, pp. 120, 121. 

 ' Huntington, Dwight W.: Our Feathered Game, 1893, p. 47. 

 ' Sears, George W. (Nessmuk): Woodcraft, 1891, pp. 124, 125. 

 * Beverly, Robert: History of Virginia, 1855, p. 256. 

 t> Josselyn, John: New England's Rarities, 1865, p. 42. 



