154 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



one watercourse to another, having a roosting 

 place at one ridge one night and the next night 

 at another. This sort of arrangement suits them 

 admirably, as they dislike to roost in the same 

 trees two or more consecutive nights. I have 

 known them to make such regular changes as 

 to roost in three or four different places in a 

 week, bringing up at the same place not exceed- 

 ing once or twice a week, and that on or about 

 certain days. These are facts peculiar to the 

 wild turkey, especially if localities are favorably 

 arranged. But often they will roost very many 

 nights near the same place. If the range is un- 

 limited, however, they will seldom roost oftener 

 than twice a week at a given spot. There are 

 exceptions though, for I have known positively 

 of old gobblers who took up their abode at a 

 certain spot and roosted, if not in the same tree, 

 in the same clump of trees, night after night and 

 year after year with the persistent regularity of 

 the peacock, which will roost on the same limb of 

 a tree for ten or twenty years if undisturbed. 

 When an old gobbler does take to this hermit- 

 like custom, he is the most difficult bird to 



