THE WILD TURKEY. 
197 
and when surprised the motion of the wings is so 
rapid as to produce a peculiar whistling sound. They 
are constant residents of the Middle and Southern 
States, and during the Winter become very tame and 
sociable, sometimes resorting to the barn-yard, and 
feeding in company with the poultry. 
Through the Pigeons we pass readily from the 
Insessores to the Gallinse. This order comprises the 
well-known Wild Turkey, the Partridges, the Grouse, 
Pheasant, Guinea-fowl, etc. 
The Wild Turkey, once so abundant in that part 
of the country lying between the Alleghanies and 
the Mississippi river, appears now to have become 
quite a scarce, shy, and in some places an obsolete 
bird. Like the poor Fed Man who once roamed un- 
restrained through the same trackless woods, the 
march of civilization has encroached upon its free- 
dom. And as the Indian has folded his blanket and 
gradually retired before the irresistible step of the 
avaricious white man, to the plains of the Far West, 
so this noblest game of the forest has taken its flight 
from haunts where once the murderous gun was sel- 
dom heard to echo, to nestle among the secluded 
wilds west of the Mississippi. Straggling companies, 
however, still remain in the yet unsettled parts of 
Pennsylvania, New York, and several of the Western 
States, though only relics of what was formerly a 
numerous and powerful tribe. 
The Wild Turkey, from its weight and bulky pro- 
portions, is essentially a terrestrial bird ; its food con- 
sists of the fruits of forest trees, which it searches 
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