TURKEY SHOOTING. 
301 
TURKEY SHOOTING. 
NDOUBTEDLY the most deli¬ 
cious, as it is the largest and no¬ 
blest, of all gallinaceous game, 
there is yet little sport in its pur¬ 
suit, and beyond mere proficiency 
with the rifle, little skill required 
to kill it. The case is the same 
with this, as with all other wild and 
forest-haunting fowls and animals. 
In the size of the game, and its variety, or its excellence, de¬ 
pends all the excitement of its pursuit and capture. It is 
extremely wild and wary, running in flocks when alarmed, at 
such a rate that it is difficult for a speedy dog to overtake it, 
and never, so far as I have heard or read, lying close enough to 
allow itself to he stood by Pointers or Setters, or to be shot on 
the wing. 
The ways adopted for shooting it, are, therefore, all depen¬ 
dent on ambush or stratagem, the shooter either concealing him¬ 
self in some place which commands a view of the spots on 
which they are in the habit of scratching and removing the dry 
leaves, in order to pick up their food, or making use of a sort 
of pipe or call, by which the cry or yelp, as it is termed, of the 
female may be simulated so exactly, as to bring the old males, 
or gobblers, within gunshot, almost unfailingly. Mr. Audubon 
relates an occurrence which befel himself, indicating the singu¬ 
lar boldness, if it should, not rather be called stupidity, of the 
