GENTLEMEN 
THE 
KING 
By ARCHIBALD RUTLEDGE 
PAK. I 
F ALL the birds known to me, 
O the wild turkey holds the pre- 
mier place though I admit at 
the same time that the ruffed grouse 
has a patrician elegance all its own. 
Many things contribute to this—the 
turkey’s size, his regal presence, his 
eerie wariness, his fleetness both afoot 
and awing, and his completely satisfy- 
ing nature on the table. Any hunter 
who brings one home out of the wilder- 
ness goes far toward convincing his 
wife that she has married a real man 
after all. 
With varying success, as must needs 
be the case with all who follow this 
splendid and elusive quarry, I have 
hunted this great bird in his native 
haunts for fifty years. Usually he has 
baffled and outwitted me, but occa- 
sionally I have turned the tables on 
him. Possibly you may benefit from 
some of my defeats and victories in the 
pursuit of this king of the wildwoods. 
There are certainly two reasons why 
the wild turkey is one of the most 
elusive of all game birds: first, while I 
do not believe that his sense of smell is 
used to detect his enemies, both his hear- 
ing and his eyesight are phenomenally 
keen; second, his range may be said to 
be very great, and his movements most 
erratic. Quail and grouse, ducks and 
geese may generally be found where they 
belong; but turkeys are often found 
where least expected, and are as often 
absent from where they ought to be. 
Nor can a hunter tell how many miles 
away they may be. 
If quail and grouse are not right 
here, they are right there; but turkeys 
sometimes just seem to leave the world. 
Moreover, for reasons known to them- 
selves alone, or for no reasons at all, 
they take notions and will go trooping 
off into the wilderness, deserting tracts 

of forest and swamp that are ideal for 
them—just disappearing for weeks at a 
time. Except to escape immediate dan- 
- ger, to go to roost, or to fly across water, 
they rarely use their wings; and in the 
case of a heavy old gobbler, he will 
nearly always try to escape on foot. 
Nor is there another American game 
bird that can travel so fast and so far 
on his legs. A. turkey can outrun a 
horse for a considerable distance, and a 
turkey with a broken wing will nearly 
always escape from the pursuing hunter. 
On the other hand, with a good bird 
dog to locate him, you can usually find 
and catch a wild turkey with a broken 
lee. He has to taxita rise, , his is 
especially true if the bird is a heavy one. 
Only recently I had a thing happen 
to me that made me come home, after 
all these years of hunting turkeys, feel- 
ing that I really knew very little about 
these feathered monarchs of the wilds. 
About two miles from my plantation 
home, on the borders of a great cypress 
swamp, I had found where several 
turkeys had been using regularly. 
There was not much stratching, but I 
could see where some heavy toenails had 
ripped the ground; so I judged that 
one or two old gobblers were using 
that territory. 
As is fairly well known, while a 
flock hatched one season will stay to- 
gether, old gobblers and hens do not 
often consort together except in the 
mating season. I have seen as many as 
nine old bearded men travelling to- 
gether. Frequently one wise old bird 
will live a solitary existence. 
Thinking I might waylay the vet- 
erans in question, I repaired to their 
favorite haunt about one o’clock in the 
afternoon. Wild turkeys do most of 
their feeding early in the morning, 
when just down from the roost, and 
about two o'clock in the afternoon. 
For about two hours or more in the 
middle of the day they loaf, drowse and 
dust themselves. 
As it is very uncertain business to 
call gobblers that have not been sepa- 
rated and that are not mating, I decided 
to hide myself at a strategic place and 
just wait in the hope that they might 
come along. In thus hiding himself 
the hunter has to make sure that he is 
protected on all sides; yet he must not 
hide himself so well that he cannot see 
out, nor must he confine himself so 
closely that he cannot maneuver his gun. 
properly. 
A wild turkey is so keen and so fast 
that you have to be ready to receive him 
when he comes. If he ever catches a 
glimpse of your preparations, he'll be 
gone. Fis eyesight is almost in a class 
by itself—infinitely superior to that of 
the white-tailed deer. Indeed, if a deer 
sees a man motionless in the woods, he 
will say to himself, ““That’s a stump.” 
But if a wild turkey sees a stump, he 
willsay, Whats @ man. 
I had been in my little sentry-box in 
the wilds for an hour before anything: 
happened. “The day was very cold; and 
although I had on a lot of extra clothes, 
1 was beginning to get chilly. Fortu- 
nately the air was still, so that I could 
catch every sound in the forest. How- 
ever, I did not hear anything until, 
rather near me, but from an unexpected 
quarter, I detected bold rhythmic 
scratching—a sound which, once heard, 
is never forgotten. 
I turned my eyes to one side, and 
within thirty yards of me was an old 
gobbler. When you see a wild turkey 
within range, the thing to do it to shoot 
him. Don’t wait. If you have the 
chance, take it. Don’t waste a second! 
(Please turn to page 22) 
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