48 



THE GAME BREEDER 



HOW I GOT MY WILD BLOOD. 



By J. D. McClintic. 



As some of my patrons ask how I 

 got my wild blood, I will explain in as 

 few words as I can. It would take a 

 book to hold all my experience with this 

 grand and most beautiful of all fowls — 

 the wild turkey. I got my first wild 

 blood about 25 or 26 years ago by one 

 of my hens straying away with the wild 

 turkeys in the mountains. She came 

 home after being away for some time 

 with a flock of little turks. Four of 

 them were wild arid little beauties. They 

 could fly to the tops of the trees When 

 the little tame fellows could not fly on 

 the fence. My next wild blood I pro- 

 cured .about 20 years ago, as was de- 

 scribed at the time by The Lewistown 

 Gazette, as follows : 



Saturday a large wild gobbler came down 

 off the mountain to the orchard at Valley 

 View Poultry Farm and started a fight with 

 the large bronze gobbler belonging to the 

 farm. The proprietor, hearing a terrible 

 thumping, went to see what was the matter. 

 On reaching the orchard, he beheld the two 

 gobblers engaged in a deadly battle. Stand- 

 ing and watching the fight until his turkey 

 got the best of the knight of the forest and 

 had a deadly grip on his throat, he went to 

 take hold of the intruder, when his turkey 

 let go his hold and away the wild turkey 

 went to the mountains. Mr. McClintic says 

 the fight was worth seeing. 



The large bronze gobbler belonging to the 

 Valley View Poultry Farm died last week 

 from the effects of the fight he had with the 

 wild gobbler from the mountain two weeks 

 ago. The gobbler that did the deed has 

 taken up his abode on the farm with the 

 turkey hens, staying through the day and go- 

 ing to the mountain at night. He is a grand 

 bird in size and plumage and struts around 

 among the turkeys and chickens as if he 

 had always been used to civilized life. 



This grand old Tom stayed with my 

 hens till the breeding*- season was over, 

 then left; but the next "spring he returned 

 early in March. He was nearly starved, 

 as the winter was severe, with deep 

 snow. He ate about a" pint of corn at 

 his first feed. He was not afraid of me, 

 but was shy of strangers and would run 

 to the mountain when strangers would 



get too close to him, but finally, he did 

 not mind strangers much. I raised some 

 grand, beautiful, birds out of this old 

 Knight of the Forest. After this my 

 hens mingled with wild Toms along the 

 mountain, as I did not have my orchards 

 wired then. Six years ago another Wild 

 Tom came. I penned him with the hens, 

 but if I did not let him out at nights 

 he would fly out. He would never roost 

 with the hens, but would go to the moun- 

 tain every night. About the second week 

 of last February one morning, as I was 

 feeding my turkeys, I saw an old wild 

 Tom standing outside of the wire. He 

 left, but I believed he would return. I 

 went to work and prepared for him by 

 wiring one end of one of my orchards 

 off for him, made a large gate on the 

 side next the woods. He came back, 

 the first week of March. I opened the 

 gate and he came in, and was right at 

 home among the hens. At first he would 

 not roost with the hens, but he finally 

 got to roosting with them. He stayed 

 till about the 15th of August. He came 

 back once after this. I called to him as 

 he was some distance away with another 

 old Wild Tom. He started to come to 

 me, but the other old fellow ran for 

 the mountain. He stood undecided for 

 a few moments, then raised| his wings 

 as if in a farewell salute, and ran after 

 his companion. 



He had become so tame he' would run 

 around me and play when I Would go to 

 feed him. I photographed hjim. He is 

 the first wild turkey right \ from our 

 mountain on record that was ever photo- 

 graphed. I took several pictures of him, 

 but it was hard to get a good! picture, as 

 he was afraid of the kodak.! The best 

 picture I got of him he was coming to- 

 wards me watching the kodak and started 

 to run just as I snapped him. It does 

 not do . him j ustice . at rt all, but I j ust 

 wanted his picture as a novelty and 

 something rare. He was admired and 



