CHAPTER XVI. 
WILD TURKEY. 
Two species represent this family, viz., the common wild 
turkey, so well known in nearly all the States composing 
the Union, and the ocellated, common to Honduras and 
portions of Central America. 
Although this race are not migratory, still they are great 
wanderers; thus a locality where they have been abundant 
one month, may be entirely deserted by them the next. It 
is found in the province of Ontario, in Canada, which I am 
led to believe is the most northern range of its habitat: 
here it was at one time tolerably abundant, but the cultiva- 
tion of the wild lands, and constant persecution by the set- 
tlers, have very much reduced their numbers. Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio at one time swarmed with them, but there, 
as in Canada, they have suffered much diminution; how- 
ever, in the adjoining States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
and Wisconsin they can be found in sufficient numbers to 
remunerate the sportsman for the time and labor passed 
in their pursuit. All the Southern States possess them in 
greater or less abundance, but their range does not extend 
westward beyond the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mount- 
ains. 
The early settlers, when this game was far less wary 
than now, were in the habit of shooting them with the 
rifle, the head invariably being the object fired at, but 
quickness of aim being now a desideratum, the shot-gun 
has usurped the place of the other weapon. On damp 
hazy moonlight nights in autumn, if the roosting-place be 
