THE WILD TURKEY. 53 
took aim when they came within range, and killed the 
leader in his tracks. This caused the others to head up 
the hill; I followed in hot pursuit, and on reaching the 
crest of the mound-like ridge I got another shot, but it 
proved to bea miss. Before I could get a second one, a 
splendid stag jumped out of covert and dashed away at 
a bounding gait, but ere he could get out of sight I fired 
at him, and brought him headlong to the ground. He 
was up and off again in a moment, however, and the last 
I saw of him was a switching white tail as he disappeared 
in the undergrowth. I fancied at first that I had killed, 
him, but when I saw him move away at the pace he did, 
T concluded I had only hurt his feelings. As soon as he 
had vanished, I entered a coppice, and saw eight turkeys 
advancing towards me in the most heedless manner. Dis- 
mounting, I took aim over the horse’s back, and fired 
twice at them, but I only killed one. I scared them badly 
though, for they retreated with the speed of greyhounds. 
Picking up my trophy, I mounted my steed and ran 
around the coppice to head them off, as I had seen them 
fly in that direction. On reaching my position, I dis- 
mounted, squatted on the ground behind a tree, and 
waited patiently for their appearance. They did not 
keep me long in suspense, for they came out of the bushes, 
not thirty feet away, and the moment they appeared I 
opened fire, and bagged two. 
The remainder darted back into the woods, and think- 
ing they would head for the extreme crest of the hill, I 
galloped in that direction and had scarcely reached the. 
shelter of a huge granite boulder before I heard the 
anxious call of the leader of the flock. He was answered 
in a short time, and in less than fifteen minutes more I 
saw a nice drove of twenty or thirty emerging from the 
shrubbery. When I got them in a bunch I finshed them, 
fired, and bagged two, as they flew very slowly and 
heavily. Having as many as I cared to carry, I started 
