134 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
the manner of a half-starved sow), or at.any attempt to put 
his head down. 
After a few ineffectual efforts which my steed made, 
showing an inclination to differ from me in opinion, we 
jogged on comfortably for several miles along the edge of 
prairie and timber, the usual markings of water - courses. 
The sun was near midday, and still no game was to be 
seen. In quiet, retired situations like this, such is an un- 
healthy sign; for game is not in the habit of leaving a 
favorite feeding- ground without reason. Discouraged at 
want of success, I dismounted, fastening up Bucephalus, 
and took my pipe again into confidence. On an old rotten 
limb of a partially decayed button-wood a family of red- 
headed woodpeckers were busily at work, making the 
woods echo with the violence of their tapping. Watching: 
the sprightly movements of these active little beauties, I 
became totally absorbed in their energetic pursuits, when a 
half-snort and uneasy movement on the part of my horse 
caused me to look round; and well I did so, for about forty 
yards off, leisurely feeding, were about thirty full-grown 
wild turkeys. My smooth-bore had ball in each barrel, but 
as I had two or three loads of buck-shot. in my pouch, I 
determined to substitute it. To the shelter of a log, like a 
snake, I glided, to perform the change of missiles, and was 
about to draw the last fragment of myself out of sight, 
when the confounded warning of a rattlesnake sounded so 
close, that I involuntarily gave a jump to avoid the threat- 
ening danger, thus exposing myself to the turkeys, who took 
wing, without affording me a chance of a shot; so turkey- 
less I was compelled to remain; but you may bet that snake 
never scared any one afterward. He was one of the largest 
and most venomous of his family, being quite five feet long, 
as yellow as gold along the abdomen, and possessed of six- 
teen rattles. _He belonged to the variety which generally. 
