THE WILD TURKEY IN NEW ENGLAND 
Glover M. Allen. 
It is now more than half a century since the last Wild 
Turkey was killed in New England, yet so meager are the 
facts recorded concerning this splendid bird within our 
area, that it is not now possible to trace exactly the nor¬ 
thern and eastern limits of its range. It therefore seems 
worth while to bring together a few gleanings, unearthed 
chiefly in a search through local histories, most of which 
are unlikely otherwise to come to general notice, but which 
afford some notion of the former limits and notable resorts 
of Turkeys in New England. 
Apparently the first mention of Turkeys in New England 
occurs in Samuel de Champlain’s account of his voyage 
along these coasts. Fifteen years before the coming of 
the Pilgrims this bold navigator had explored and accu¬ 
rately charted the greater part of the shore-line from the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence to Connecticut. In 1605 he sailed 
from Nova Scotia south westward to the coast of Maine 
and thence followed the shore at least into Long Island 
Sound. ‘‘The savages,” he writes (translated), “along 
all these coasts where we have been (i. e., from southern 
Maine to Connecticut) say that other birds, which are very 
large, come along when their corn is ripe. They imitated 
for us their cry, which resembles that of the (domesticated) 
Turkey. They showed us their feathers in several places, 
with which they feather their arrows, and which they put 
on their heads for decoration; and also a kind of hair which 
they have under the throat like those we have in France, 
and they say that a red crest falls over the beak. Accord¬ 
ing to their description, they are as large as a Bustard, 
which is a kind of goose, (outarde is still used for the Wild 
Goose by the French Canadians) having the neck longer, 
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