THE WILD TURKEY. 29 
cordance with the ethics and esthetics of true sport is 
another matter, 
If a man wanted the birds for food; no one could ob- 
ject to this system of destruction, as the old adage, 
“necessity has no laws,” would be applicable in his case; 
but if he did not want them particularly, this idea of 
calling a flock at a time within gun-shot would be open to 
criticism. The veriest tyro can bag gobblers in regions 
where they are little. hunted, for the necessity of cau- 
tiousness and vigilance has not been forced upon them 
by stern lessons; hence, they allow their human foe to 
approach close enough to deal destruction among them 
before they learn to know that he represents death to 
them. 
The turkey is quite common in Florida, Texas, Ari- 
zona, New Mexico, Arkansas, the Indian Territory, 
Louisiana, and some of the contiguous regions, and its 
pursuit is a favorite pastime in winter with those who 
like a life in the wilderness, and prefer its virile amuse- 
ments to the gentler, though more exacting, pleasures of 
a city. People who have pursued and bagged their 
twenty-pound gobblers, whether by calling, stalking, or 
any other method known to the initiated, consider them- 
selyes “‘no small apples,” when compared to those who 
have not; and veteran turkey-hunters think all other 
kinds of bird-shooting quite tame, if not insignificant, 
in comparison with their favorite sport. 
There is scarcely one of tuese men who cannot tell a 
tale about some unusually keen-witted turkey which he 
could not kill, or which cost him so much time and 
trouble to bag that it proved an exceedingly costly 
trophy; but the question of labor and expense is a very - 
minor one with all of them when contrasted with their 
sense of satisfaction at their final success. I have had 
several opportunities of judging what an astute gobbler 
is capable of doing so far as escaping his foes is con- 
