234 FIELD SHOOTING. 



was coming up on his track, and be ready for a 

 quick bolt. As 1 advanced on the trail, I heard 

 a movement among the top brush of a fallen 

 tree, and out went the turkey. He was probably 

 sixty yards away from me when I saw him so 

 as to shoot, but I took a long shot, and hit him 

 hard with the right barrel, following it with the 

 left instanter to make sure work. I think the 

 first barrel would have been enough, but I was 

 very anxious to get him ; and as I knew that if 

 he was only winged he would run until he 

 dropped dead, I gave him the second barrel. He 

 was the most splendid specimen of the wild tur- 

 key I ever saw, and I have seen a great many. 

 He weighed twenty-seven pounds, was quite fat, 

 and the beard — the tuft of hair which hangs from 

 the breast — was eight inches long. The beauty 

 of his plumage on the neck, wings, and breast 

 is indescribable. It glittered with a score of hues 

 of metallic lustre — gold, green, purple, brown, etc. — 

 and these tints cast rays like those which flash 

 from the feathers of the humming-bird. 



It was in the belt of timber in which this 

 gobbler was found that I then lived. On two 

 occasions there I shot at a turkey on the wing 

 with a rifle, when out after deer, and killed. 



