432 THE WILD TURKEY. 



etc. ; a "brush" of long, stiff, black bristles depending from center of chest ; black, 

 conical spurs, etc. Does not require more particular description because of great 

 similarity to the domestic bird. A typical specimen in the O. S. U. collection 

 presents the following measurements: length 46.00 (i 168.4) ;wing 20.00 (508.) ; 

 tail 17.50 (444.5) ; tarsus 6.20 (157.5) ; middle toe and claw 4-3° (109.2) ; bill 

 from nostril 1.03 (26.2) ; brush, along exposed portion, 5.80 ( 147-3) • Females 

 are much smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Distinguished from the domestic race principally by 

 the chestnut or rufous tips, instead of white, on the upper tail-coverts and tail. 



Nest, on the ground, usually under protection of bush or tree-trunk, lined 

 indifferently with grasses. Bggs, 10-20, usually about 12, creamy buff, thickly 

 speckled with rusty brown Av. iize, 2.50 x i.go (63.5 x 48.3). 



General Range. — United States from Chesapeake Bay to . the Gulf Coast, 

 and west to the Plains, along wooded river valleys ; formerly north to southern 

 Maine, southern Ontario, southern Michigan, etc., and up the- Missouri River 

 to North Dakota. 



Range in Ohio. — Formerly abundant throughout the state, but now nearly 

 extinct. One of its late strongholds was in the northwestern part of the state 

 in the neighborhood of Wauseon. It is believed to linger yet in Brown, Adams, 

 and Highland Counties. 



THE young people of the present generation are conning over Greek char- 

 acters out of gilded books, where their grandfathers studied Turkey tracks on 

 the moist floor of the ancient wood ; and the log shambles tO' which led certain 

 seductive trails of Indian corn, have made way now for the seats of the mighty. 

 Our fathers too are still able to point out the spot where this feathered pride 

 of the forest was wont tO' strut and gobble, or exercise himself, with becoming 

 reverence for approaching Thanksgiving, in the virtue of fat. 



The wild Turkeys were once abundant in Ohio. They were resident in 

 the large sense, but ranged freely and somewhat irregularly through a con- 

 siderable section in search of food. Stupid and. unwary at first, they soon 

 learned the ways of the white man, and became, years before their now prac- 

 tical extinction, the most cunning and vigilant of all wild birds. Indeed, to 

 track a Turkey in the woods, to learn his haunts, to come upon him unawares, 

 or even to get within rifle shot of him, were high accomplishments of wood 

 craft, to which only the elect might attain. 



The preference of these birds was for low damp woods, and especially 

 those wliich gave ready access to the fertile clearings of the pioneer. Here 

 they ranged widely by day, gathering nuts and acorns, or grasshoppers and 

 fallen grain, and at night they roosted in the highest tree-tops. During the 

 mating time, the gobbler, choleric with the distemper of the season, met the 

 scattering members of his harem one by one as they answered his summons, 

 and resorted to some secluded trysting place. The hens, however, were careful 

 not to betray the secret of their nests, fearing with good reason, that their 

 tyrannical lord would destroy eggs or chicks in his blind rage of jealousy. 

 With greatest caution, therefore, each female stole softly to some spot, far 



