350 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



to the use of a green leaf, especially when I had a sharp 

 gobbler to deal A^ith. I never could make the thin rubber 

 sheets used by dentists answer my purpose so well as 

 the leaf. For a beginner, I believe there is no caller so 

 easily learned to use as one made as follows: Saw out 

 a section of a cow' s horn two inches long, the larger end 

 being about two inches in diameter, and plug with some 

 hard, well-seasoned wood the smaller end. It must be a 

 perfect-fitting plug, very tight, and about half an inch 

 thick. Trim out the open end of the horn for a quarter 

 of an inch, until the edges are nearly sharp; and then, 

 with glass or steel, scrape the horn on the outside until 

 it is about an eighth of au inch thick all round. Get a 

 four-penny nail with a very large head — the larger the 

 better — and drive it squarely into the center of the plug, 

 on the outside, taking care to leave a full inch of the 

 nail sticking out on the outside. By holding this in 

 the right hand, cupped over the hollow of the horn, and 

 scraping the nail on a very fine but rather soft whet- 

 stone — a razor hone is best — a good call is produced, 

 by patient and intelligent practice. The whetstone 

 should be very small and thin. Practice will show any- 

 one how to use this kind of a caller. Always hold the 

 nail slightly off perpendicular to the stone, and scrape 

 toward you, drawing the edge of the nail-head against it. 

 A favorite method of hunting turkeys in heavily tim- 

 bered sections, especially in the bottoms, is with a dog. 

 This has the double advantage of giving the hunter a 

 chance at them in the trees, if they do not fly into pines 

 or other thick-leaved or mossy trees, and also a good 

 chance at calling them, since they generally are well scat- 

 tered when flushed by a dog. Almost any kind of dog, 

 keen of nose and still of tongue when running a trail, can 

 be made good for turkeys, but I have found that pointers, 

 or mongrels having pointer blood, usually turn out best. 



