232 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



greatly reduced in weight. This specimen was 

 killed in Trinity County, Texas, where I have 

 found the turkeys to average heavier than any- 

 where else I have hunted. 



Audubon said the wild turkey would soon 

 become extinct in the United States, sixty or 

 seventy years ago; but to date his prophecy has 

 failed in so far as the Southern or Gulf States 

 are concerned. Although here as elsewhere 

 hunted and persecuted without consideration, 

 they are remarkably plentiful still. There are 

 localities in the Gulf States that will not be cleared 

 up or ultilized for agricultural purposes in ages 

 to come — if then. The immense swamps — 

 annually overflowed — great hummocks, and the 

 broken, untenable pine hills, will afford suitable 

 retreats for the turkey for generations to come. 



Wild turkeys are less understood by the aver- 

 age sportsman or even naturalist than any other 

 of our game birds. It is common to read of the 

 acute olfactory powers of the turkey; that he 

 scents the hunter at one hundred to three hun- 

 dred yards; the truth is it must be a pungent 

 odor to have a turkey detect it at ten paces. 



