120 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



ones and six young ones, scratching and feeding 

 as before. They soon began to feed away from 

 me, and as I saw they were to pass over a ridge, 

 I fired at the nearest, which was about one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five yards away, tumbling him 

 over, and 'the rest of the flock ran away. Two 

 weeks after this incident I was driving in the 

 same woods for deer. The hounds flushed one 

 detachment of this flock of turkeys (the nine old 

 gobblers), which took refuge in the trees; and 

 my brother, who was on a stand near where they 

 lit, shot two of the turkeys as they perched in the 

 tall pines within rifle shot of him. These birds 

 were noble fellows, weighing twenty-one pounds 

 each, and they were fat. This was in January. 



As shown, the young gobbler will occasionally 

 associate with the old ones, but he seldom re- 

 mains long in their company. Why this is 

 so I do not know, as I have never known 

 them to quarrel, jostle, fight, or disagree in 

 any way. I have come to the conclusion that 

 the cause of the separation must be the want 

 of congeniality between old age and youth. 

 This division and separation into classes em- 



