348 
WILD TURKEY. 
straddling manner of running, very easy to tliemselves, but 
which few animals can equal. This disposition for running, 
during rains, or humid weather, is common to all gallinaceous 
birds. 
The males are frequently decoyed within gunshot, in the 
breeding season, by forcibly drawing the air through one of 
the wing bones of the turkey, producing a sound very similar 
to the voice of the female ; but the performer on this simple 
instrument must commit no error, for turkeys are quick of 
hearing, and, when frequently alarmed, are wary and cunning. 
Some of these will answer to the call without advancing a step, 
and thus defeat the speculations of the hunter, who must avoid 
making any movement, inasmuch as a single glance of a tur- 
key may defeat his hopes of decoying them. By imitating 
the cry of the barred owl [Strix nehulosa)^ the hunter discovers • 
many on their roosts, as they will reply by a gobble to every 
repetition of this sound, and can thus be approached with cer- 
tainty, about daylight, and easily killed. 
Wild turkeys are very tenacious of their feeding grounds, 
as well as of the trees on which they have once roosted. 
Flocks have been known to resort to one spot for a succession 
of years, and to return after a distant emigration in search of 
food. Their roosting place is mostly on a point of land, jut- 
ting into a river, where there are large trees. When they 
have collected at the signal of a repeated gobbling, they silently 
proceed towards their nocturnal abodes, and perch near each 
other : from the numbers sometimes congregated in one place, 
it would seem to be the common rendezvous of the whole 
neighbourhood. But no position, however secluded or diffi- 
cult of access, can secure them from the attacks of the artful 
and vigilant hunter, who, when they are all quietly perched 
for the night, takes a stand previously chosen by daylight, and, 
when the rising moon enables him to take sure aim, shoots 
them down at leisure, and, by carefully singling out those on 
the lower branches first, he may secure nearly the whole flock, 
neither the presence of the hunter, nor the report of his gun. 
