114 UOMESTIC AOTMALS. 



yet they always retained some of their original propensities, roosting by 

 themselves, and higher than the tame birds, generally on the top of 

 some tree, or on the house. They were also more readily alarmed. On 

 the approach of a dog they would fly off, and seek safety in the woods. 

 On an occasion of this kind, one of them flew across the Susquehanna, 

 and the owner was apprehensive of losing it. In order to recover it, he 

 sent a boy with a tame turkey, which was released at the place where 

 the fugitive had alighted. This plan was successfiil. They soon joined 

 company, and the tame bird induced his companion to return home. 

 Mr. Bloom found occasion to remark that the wild turkey will thrive 

 more and keep in better condition than the tame turkey, on the same 

 quantity of food. 



The native country of the wild turkey extends from the northwestern 

 territory of the United States to the Isthmus of Panama, south of which 

 it is not to be found, notwithstanding the statements of authors, who 

 have mistaken the curassow for it. In Canada, and the now densely- 

 peopled parts of the United States, wild turkeys were formerly very 

 abundant, but, like the Indian buffalo, they have been compelled to 

 yield to the destructive ingenuity of the white settlers, often wantonly 

 exercised, and seek refuge in the remotest parts of the interior. Although 

 they relinquish their native soil with slow and reluctant steps, yet such 

 is the rapidity with which settlements are extended, and condensed over 

 the surface of this country, that we may anticipate a day, at no distant 

 period, when the hunter will seek the wild turkey in vain. 



The wooded part of Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama ; 

 the unsettled portions of the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and 

 Illinois ; the vast expanse of territory northwest of these states, on the 

 Mississippi and Missouri, as far as the forests extend, are more supplied 

 than any other parts of the Union with this valuable game, which forms 

 an important part of the subsistence of the hunter and traveler in the 

 wilderness. It is not probable that the range of this bird extends to 

 or beyond the Rocky Mountains. The Mandan Indians, who a few 

 years ago visited the city of Washington, considered the turkey one of 

 the greatest curiosities they had seen, and prepared a skin of one to 

 carry home for exhibition. 



In Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, the wild turkey is not common, 

 and still less so in the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania. 

 Some, however, are said to exist in the mountainous districts of Sussex 

 county, New Jersey. 



The wild turkey is irregularly migratory, as well as irregularly grega- 

 rious. Whenevei;the forest fruits (or mast) of one portion of the country 

 greatly exceed those of another, thither are the turkeys insensibly led, 

 by gradually meeting in their haunts with more fruit, the nearer they 

 advance toward the place in which it is most plentiful. Thus, in an 

 irregular manner, flock follows flock, until some districts are deserted, 

 while others are crowded with an influx of arrivals. "About the 

 beginning of October," says Audubon, " when scarcely any of the seeds 

 and fruits have fallen from the trees, these birds assemble in flocks, and 

 gradually move toward the rich bottom-lands of the Ohio and Mississippi, 

 The males, or, as they are more commonly called, the gohblei-s, associate 



