Marcli, 1922 
131 
down in that l)Ottom next to the i-iver, 
when I sudden!)' heard a sound sweet to 
the sportsman's ear. “St^’ish - szi'ish- 
swish !” The sound continued for five 
minutes or more, and though I knew that 
wild turke)'S were taking roost in my 
vicinity, I had not as yet lieen able to see 
one. At last 1 was rewarded, for an old 
gobbler mounted high on a pine, and his 
bulk was outlined against the bright 
western skv. I could have fetched my 
gun from the house and done some exe- 
cution, but this is one of the flocks that 
I have been saving for you. It’s strange 
about wild turkeys. Your Iwother looked 
everywhere for these, yet the day he 
leaves they put in an appearance. Some 
instinct seems often to tin them off when 
danger is imminent. 
In my experience, when turkeys leave 
the range on which they have been bred, 
they will be certain to return within two 
weeks; not to stay, perhaps, but just to 
visit at home. But I don’t think any of 
these will wander far before you come. 
The live oak acorns are falling now, and 
you know that turkeys will travel miles 
to get this food. In my lifetime on this 
plantation I have more often seen wild 
turkeys under live oak trees in the au- 
tumn than I have seen them at any other 
place. Deer, too, love these acorns. Jim 
Taylor, however, insists that their favor- 
ite food in autumn is mushrooms; and 
that they do relish these strange growths 
is a well-established fact. In the pine 
thicket on Montgomery Hill there are 
many mushrooms, and at this time of the 
year the deer are regular visitors there. 
You can see at any time how*the deer 
have been pulling at them, and occasion- 
ally pawing one delicately out of the 
sand. They are beginning to paw now 
for another reason : the bucks are out on 
the w'arpath for rivals. Several times 
during the past fortnight, w’hile riding in 
the woods, I have come to places on open 
ridges where -bucks have been fighting; 
I found where several had rubbed the 
last of the velvet, and had done at the 
same time considerable stamping and 
pawing. 
Old Sarah, who has now recovered 
from the minie-ball wound in the eye, 
was coming across the cotton field the 
other evening when she met a buck full 
in her pathway. He would not give 
ground to her, and she retreated. About 
all she could tell me of him Avas that “he 
hah horn wider than a cow." I saw his 
track ; a good stag he is, and doubtless 
belongs right on this place, though he 
doesn’t just own it, as seems to be his 
present idea. 
In February I wrote you of the mi- 
grating of the wild ducks northward ; 
and now here they are again, coming 
south for the winter. The nights are full 
of their cries, many of which must be 
cries of old birds who are sentry-leaders, 
who, having made the flight before, are 
reassuring the young ones. Most of 
these winter in the delta just below us, 
where they find an abundance of food in 
the old waste rice lands. Their favorite 
food is duck-oats. But they feed on 
wampee, wild rice, and the fruits of many 
aquatic plants. The program for one of 
their days is an interesting one. 
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