he fired at them without taking good aim. The ball lodged 
in a tree; but all the injury inflicted on the turkeys was, 
they were badly frightened. Mr. Lakin afterwards was able 
to capture some of them in a trap.” (Hayward, W.W., 
“History of Hancock,” 1889, p. 72-73.) Unfortunately the 
writer of this episode gives no dates, but probably the time 
was about the close of the eighteenth century, when the 
country was yet but thinly settled. In his “History of the 
Town of Peterborough, N. H.” (1876, p. 217), A. Smith 
tells us that “the wild turkey was found early in the settle¬ 
ment.” 
From these fragmentary bits it appears that Wild Tur¬ 
keys formerly frequented southern New Hampshire from 
the coast nearly to Lake Winnipesaukee in the low country, 
and to the lower hills in the western part of the state. 
Vermont: Much search through historical literature on 
Vermont has disclosed almost nothing regarding the former 
presence of the Wild Turkey. Zadock Thompson, in his 
“History of Vermont, Natural, Civil and Statistical” (1842, 
p. 101), includes it in his catalogue of birds with the brief 
and unsatisfactory remark that “a few of them, however, 
still continue to visit and breed upon the mounains in the 
southern part of the state.” There is nothing to indicate 
that he had personal knowledge of them, and Williams, in 
1794, merely included it without comment in his list (Wil¬ 
liams, Samuel, “The Natural and Civil History of Vermont,” 
1794, p. 120). One may infer that neither author was 
familiar with the Turkey, and it had probably become nearly 
exterminated by the early years of the nineteenth century. 
Audubon’s mention of it as a bird of Vermont may have 
been based on Williams’ statement just quoted. 
The specific records I have found for the bird in Vermont 
relate to localities in the Connecticut Valley in the southern 
part of the state. Rockingham is the most northerly, where 
in the early times ‘‘wild turkeys were sometimes shot, but 
they were not seen in large numbers” (Hayes, L. S., “His¬ 
tory of Rockingham, Vt.,” 1907, p. 90). At Dummerston 
they are said to have formed part of the sustenance of the 
IO 
