WILD TURKEY. 165 
curiosities they had seen, and prepared a skin of one, to 
carry home for exhibition. 
The wild turkey is not very plenty in Florida, Georgia, 
and the Carolinas ; is still less frequently found in the 
western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania; and is 
extremely rare, if indeed it exists at all, in the remaining 
northern and eastern parts of the United States ; in 
New England, it even appears to have been already 
destroyed one hundred and fifty years back. I am, 
however, credibly informed, that wild turkeys are yet 
to be found in the mountainous districts of Sussex 
county, New Jersey. The most eastern part of Penn- 
sylvania now inhabited by them, appears to be Lancaster 
county ; and they are often observed in the oak w r oods 
near Pliilipsburg, Clearfield county. Those occasionally 
brought to the Philadelphia and New York markets, 
are chiefly obtained in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 
The wild turkeys do not confine themselves to any 
particular food ; they eat maize, all sorts of berries, 
fruits, grasses, beetles ; and even tadpoles, young frogs, 
and lizards, are occasionally found in their crops ; but 
where the pecan nut is plenty, they prefer that fruit 
to any other nourishment; their more general predi- 
lection is, however, for the acorn, on which they rapidly 
fatten. When an unusually profuse crop of acorns 
is produced in a particular section of country, great 
numbers of turkeys are enticed from their ordinary 
haunts in the surrounding districts. About the begin- 
ning of October, while the mast still remains on the 
trees, they assemble in flocks, and direct their course 
to the rich bottom lands. At this season they are 
observed in great numbers on the Ohio and Mississippi. 
The time of this irruption is known to the Indians by 
the name of the turkey month. 
The males, usually termed gobblers, associate in parties, 
numbering from ten to a hundred, and seek their food 
apart from the females ; whilst the latter either move 
about singly with their young, then nearly two-thirds 
grown, or, in company with other females and their 
families, form troops, sometimes consisting of seventy 
