WILD TURKEY. 235 
tant period, when the hunter will seek the wild turkey in 
vain, 
We have neglected no means of obtaining information from 
various parts of the Union relative to this interesting bird ; 
and having been assisted by the zeal and politeness of several 
individuals, who, in different degrees, have contributed to our 
stock of knowledge on this subject, we return them our best 
thanks. We have particular satisfaction in acknowledging . 
the kindness of Mr John J. Audubon, from whom we have 
received a copious narrative, containing a considerable portion 
of the valuable notes collected by him on this bird during 
twenty years that he has been engaged in studying ornithology, 
in the only book free from error and contradiction, the great 
book of Nature. His observations, principally made in Ken- 
tucky and Louisiana, proved the more interesting, as we had 
received no information from those States; we have, in con- 
sequence, been enabled to enrich the present article with 
several new details of the manners and habits of the wild 
turkey. 
The wooded parts of Arkansaw, Louisiana, Tennessee, and 
Alabama ; the unsettled portions of the States of Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, Indiana, and Illinois; the vast expanse of territory 
north-west of these States on the Mississippi and Missouri, as 
far as the forests extend, are more abundantly supplied than 
any other parts of the Union with this valuable game, which 
forms an important part of the subsistence of the hunter and 
traveller in the wilderness. It is not probable that the range 
of this bird extends to, or beyond, the Rocky Mountains; the 
Mandan Indians, who, a few years ago, visited the city of 
Washington, considered the turkey one of the greatest curi- 
osities they had seen, and prepared a skin of one, to carry 
home for exhibition. 
The wild turkey is not very plenty in Florida, Georgia, 
and the Carolinas ; is still less frequently found in the western 
parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania; and is extremely rare, if 
indeed it exists at all, in the remaining northern and eastern 
