188 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



me over, my rifle was trained on an immense 

 gobbler within eighty yards strutting in plain 

 view. Upon him my attention was chiefly fas- 

 tened, and in a few minutes the old fellow came 

 to bag. A dead grass colored suit is not so good 

 for a turkey hunting suit as one gray or brown. 



If the game you seek be an old gobbler, and the 

 time spring, you will employ the call fully as 

 much as when calling the scattered brood in fall 

 or winter. I generally use the plain, quaint, 

 easy measured yelp or quaver and cluck of the 

 female; this same call has a hundred variations, 

 but it is not necessary that you employ all of them . 

 The simple "cluck-cluck-cluck" and now and 

 then plain "keow-keow," when properly done, is 

 generally effective. I have called as loud as I 

 could, so as to be heard a mile away, while an 

 old gobbler was standing near enough for me to 

 see the light of his eyes without alarming him. 

 Again I have called very low, just as a test, with 

 the same result. Sometimes the old bird is un- 

 usually cautious; then the less calling the better; 

 then, after you have engaged the attention of the 

 turkey so that it will stop and gobble and strut, 



