WILD TURKEY. 
91 
gobble to every repetition of this sound, and can thus be approached 
with certainty, about daylight, and easily killed. 
Wild Turkeys are very tenacious of their feeding grounds, as 
well as of the trees on which they have once roosted. Flocks have 
been known to resort to one spot for a succession of years, and to 
return after a distant emigration in search of food. Their roosting 
place is mostly on a point of land jutting into a river, where there 
are large trees. When they have collected at the signal of a 
repeated gobbling, they silently proceed towards their nocturnal 
abodes, and perch near each other: from the numbers sometimes 
congregated in one place, it would seem to be the common rendez¬ 
vous of the whole neighbourhood. But no position, however 
secluded or difficult of access, can secure them from the attacks 
of the artful and vigilant hunter, who, when they are all quietly 
perched for the night, takes a stand previously chosen by daylight; 
and, when the rising moon enables him to take sure aim, shoots 
them down at leisure, and, by carefully singling out those on the 
lower branches first, he may secure nearly the whole flock, neither 
the presence of the hunter, nor the report of his gun, intimidating 
the Turkeys, although the appearance of a single Owl would be 
sufficient to alarm the whole troop: the dropping of their com¬ 
panions from their sides excites nothing but a buzzing noise, which 
seems more expressive of surprise than fright. This fancied se¬ 
curity, 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 pens, 
constructed with logs, covered in at top, and with a passage 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 out¬ 
wards. 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, 
