CHAPTER VIII 



ITS ENEMIES AND FOOD 



N r BIRD on earth can boast of more or a 

 greater variety of enemies than the wild 

 turkey. The chief of them all is the 

 genus Homo, with his sundry and sure methods of 

 destruction. After man comes a host of wild 

 beasts and birds, including the lynx, coyote, 

 wolf, fox, mink, coon, skunk, opossum, rat, both 

 golden and white-headed eagles, goshawk, Coo- 

 per's and other hawks, horned owl, crow, etc., 

 all of whom prey more or less upon the poor birds 

 from the egg to maturity. There is never a mo- 

 ment in the poor turkey's life that eternal 

 vigilance is not the price of its existence. Still, 

 many pass the gauntlet and live to a great age, 

 the limit of which no man has discovered. I 

 have been a lifelong hunter of all sorts of game 

 indigenous to the Southern States, and I have 

 never seen or heard of a wild turkey dying a nat- 



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