GAME-BIRDS 247 



Thus, with the progress of the years, it became 

 relegated more and more to the backwoods. As 

 the forests were cleared and the country devel- 

 oped it withdrew still further, until finally the 

 native stock became entirely extinct in New Eng- 

 land and, indeed, in all the northeastern States 

 with the exception of Pennsylvania. Throughout 

 the Middle West it has been extirpated — in Wis- 

 consin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and 

 Texas. These States form a dead-line from the 

 Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and inclose 

 a solid group of Southern territory where the 

 turkey is still to be found in its native condition. 



The turkey is naturally a wary bird, always 

 difficult to find and never easy to stalk. Unlike 

 the prairie chicken, it never congregates in great 

 flocks and therefore does not place itself in a posi- 

 tion to invite wholesale slaughter. To-day it is 

 carefully guarded in all the localities where it lives, 

 and in most States only gobblers are permitted to 

 be shot. 



There was once a day when the heath hen was 

 one of the most plentiful game-birds in the north- 

 eastern States, but that day is long past. Like the 

 canvasbacks of the Chesapeake, the heath hens 

 were delicious eating and were slaughtered for 

 the market without thought of the future. Hun- 

 dreds of thousands were shot or netted every year 

 in New York, New Jersey, and New England, until 

 suddenly there were no more birds to kill. And 



