WILD TURKEY SHOOTING. 359 



post, and will not let another dog, or even the negro 

 children, get near them. They are his game as well as 

 ours. Faithful dog! I recall even now that self-satis- 

 fied air of his, as he lay beneath the mass of legs and 

 wings, every now and then looking up to see if they were 

 all there, or just to feast his eyes on them and exult over 

 the achievements of the day. 



In the piny woods, or where the trees are very mossy 

 and thick, or in the hills anywhere, but few opportuni- 

 ties are given the hunter to shoot turkeys in the trees 

 after they have been flushed by a dog, but always, in such 

 places, he has a good chance to call them up. It is always 

 advisable to build a blind near where the turkeys flushed, 

 selecting every time an open place, if possible, so that 

 one can easily see a turkey as soon as it gets near. Too 

 much care can not be bestowed upon a blind, to make it 

 safe, and at the same time natural looking. As said 

 before, two men, sitting back to back, are far more suc- 

 cessful than one, in a blind, for there is no telling on 

 which side a turkey is going to come when called. Some 

 have thought that it is not best to use a dog in flushing 

 turkeys, when one wishes to scatter them before calling, 

 preferring to run them up or fire into the fiock; but my 

 experience does not justify this, and so I always use a 

 dog, when one can be had. 



When the warm, sunny days of spring arrive, and 

 shrub and tree and earth don their new light-green robes 

 — when the buds are bursting into leaf and flower, and 

 the woodland songsters tune their voices for their merry 

 concerts in the wildwoods — then the old gobblers burnish 

 up their armor, and put on their handsomest suits of 

 silky, plushy feather, and go forth for battle and for love. 

 I frankly confess that I love them best at this time. My 

 sentiments about protecting them at this time have been 

 expressed; yet, outwitinga really sharp old gobbler is far 



