^l^^WIL 



liv^ restoration and propagation of wild 

 turkeys has become of great economic 

 importance because our domestic turkeys 

 are decimated by a disease, which has 

 made it impossible to rear them on vast 

 areas where turkey breeding was an im- 

 portant industry. Fortunately the wild birds which are com- 

 paratively free from diseases, can be introduced and quickly 

 made abundant in many places throughout their former range, 

 from Southern Maine and Canada to Florida, and Westward 

 to Wisconsin and Arizona. The breeding range, no doubt, can 

 be much extended since the wild turkeys have been introduced 

 successfully in California and other Western states. 



Our ornithologists recognize four species of wild turkeys: 

 the common wild turkeys of the Eastern states; the Florida 

 turkey, which is somewhat smaller and darker than the Eastern 

 bird; the Elliot's Rio Grande turkey, a handsome species 

 found in the lowlands of Southern Texas and Eastern Mexico; 

 and the Mexican wild turkey (from which came all our domestic 

 turkeys), which is distinguished by the light rump with broad 

 white borders to the feathers. But to the sportsman all these 

 forms are alike good game birds when they go whirring 

 through the woods like big mflPed grouse, and all are regarded 

 as far better on the table than the best domestic birds. 



WUd turkeys inhabit the forest, but wander out into fields 

 in their search for food, and they can be successfully introduced 

 in farming regions, where the woodlands are not large, provided 

 a number of farms be included in one preserve. The so-called 

 " more game " movement in America has resulted in many experi- 

 ments with wild turkeys. They have been bred in a wild state 

 on the great quail preserves in North Carolina where I have seen 



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