WILD TURKEY. 
349 
intimidating the turkeys, although the appearance of a single 
owl would be sufficient to alarm the whole troop : the drop- 
ping of their companions from their sides excites nothing but 
a buzzing noise, which seems more expressive of surprise than 
fright. This fancied security, or heedlessness of danger, while 
at roost, is characteristic of all the gallinaceous birds of North 
America. 
The more common mode of taking turkeys is by means of 
jpens^ constructed with logs, covered in at top, and with a pass- 
age in the earth under one side of it, just large enough to 
admit an individual when stooping. The ground chosen for 
this purpose is generally sloping, and the passage is cut on the 
lower side, widening outwards. These preparations being 
completed, Indian corn is strewed for some distance around 
the pen, to entice the flock, which, picking up the grain, is 
gradually led towards the passage, and thence into the enclo- 
sure, where a sufficient quantity of corn is spread to occupy 
the leader until the greater part of the turkeys have entered. 
When they raise their heads and discover that they are pri- 
soners, all their exertions to escape are directed upwards and 
against the sides of the pen, not having sagacity enough to 
stoop sufficiently low to pass out by the way they entered, and 
thus they become an easy prey, not only to the experienced 
hunter, but even to the boys on the frontier settlements. 
In proportion to the abundance or scarcity of food, and its 
good or bad quality, they are small or large, meagre or fat, 
and of an excellent or indifferent flavour : in general, however, 
their flesh is more delicate, more succulent, and better tasted 
than that of the tame turkey : they are in the best order late 
in the autumn, or in the beginning of winter. The Indians 
value this food so highly, when roasted, that they call it “ the 
white man’s dish,” and present it to strangers as the best they 
can offer. It seems probable that in Mexico the wild turkey 
cannot obtain such substantial food as in the United States, 
since Hernandez informs us that their flesh is harder, and in 
all respects inferior to that of the domestic bird. 
