The Penn's Grove record., 1883-11-10
The Wild

lhe Wild turkey was once round scat
tered over the whole of the North
American Continent, but, as the axe OF
the pioneer was heard advancing further
and further westwards the noble bird
which raised in Audubon raptures of en-
thusiastlc admiration has been pushed
towards the frontiers of the settlements,
until each succeeding year sees its num-
bers diminished, so that ultimate exter-
mination Is a matter of certainty. In
Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and
Arkansas there are still many businesses
inaccessible to man where the wild turkey
will find a binding place for many years
to come. The same obscuritj' 80 $50
lation, however, which protect the wild
gobbler afford shelter and immunity to
his formidable enemy the wild cat, who
necessarily preys upon him, and make
hrs life conditional upon cunning and
vigilance. Nor is Its finely favored
meat unappreciated by the swamp fox
and weasel, which selects the young
birds for its evening repast wherever il
Is possible to catch them. Occasional
~ the Mississippi and other big rivers
arise during the nesting time, and over
fiow the lowlands and the islands upon
which the turkeys breed. The young
bind, unable to fly and too delica e to
resist the influence of the wet, sickens
and dies. In order to appreciate the
finest sport that any game bird in crea-
t on affords a English sportsman should
become acquainted with an American
turkey-hunter. Having made the wild
Il b,l,4a ~ +Ia hid on.1 fkc nvoaal,nx .Ir
ness his especial study he has learnt to
use a call, which moduIates the note oil
alarm aud the dulcet whisper of bird
love, or gives forth the mimic sounds OF
Joy at the discovery of food hidden
under the falling leaf and upon the
5 warming ant-hill. The hunter knows
that tie cracking of a twlg under his
foot, the clatter of an alarmed squirrel,
the scamperIDg of a deer through the
forest, will rouse the wild turkeys
easily excited suspicious, and prompt
him to immediate and headlong fight.
The implements of this peculiar
sportsman I few and simple, consist
OF the call, generally made of the large
bone of the turkeys wing, and a sare
rifle. The bird changes its haLits with
its baunts, growing wilder where 1t Is
most pursued. Gaming In wisdom ana
cunning according to tue danger Of Its
surroundings, the old gobbler is so
wary that no ordinary sportsman can
circnmyent him. II once hunted regu-
lar aft 5r the same bird, said a faG-ous
Mississippi marksman, ''fort three years,
and never saw him but twice, | knew
the critters yelp as well as that OF
Music, my old deerhound, and the birds
track, WAS as clear to me as that Of alcg
hauled along a dusty road. l hunted
him always about the same s~cratchlns,
and when | called he would ruu from
me-" Let US take an imaginary scene.
The day wears towards noon, and the
patient hunter has met with no ''sign .
Suddenly a slight sound is heard, not
unlike a Thousand other woodland noises
but enough to satisfy the listeners pruc-
ticed cal. Stealthlly he l%ntreuches Ii NJ
self behind a fallen tree; u few green
twigs are arranged before him through
which peeps the muzzle OF his trusty
rifle. Thus prepared he emlts Inns call,
and gives n solitary female cluck, SO
exquIsitely modulated that 1t chlmes- in
with the running brook and the rushing
leaf. Half a mile off a splendid gouDIer
is feeding. AS he scratches up the
heritage that coneeals his food he gives
utterance to the sound that first aLtrac
ted the hunters notice. His wings are
awTy, the plumage on his breast st TENS
soiled with rain, his wattlcs are con-
tructei and pale, when suddenly he
starts, and, instantly every feather is in
its place. He raises his daidty head
full four feet from the ground, and lis
tens. What an eye flashes, what a
striue is suggested by that lifted loot.
Again the cluck greels his ear. Upris,s
the head with lightning swift less; the
bird starts forward a pace or two, and
ans wers to the call. He is uneasy, and
picks up his food p%ettlshly, smo 'tdIng
down his feathers, and at last springing
up to the limb OF "a tree to per luto the
wood. An hour passes away before the
trained hunter ventures upon another
call. The wary gobbler Is satisfied that
it comes from no human lips, and there
rises to his mind the picture oil some
dlsconsolate mistress. But he IS au old
bird. and has escaped with his life by a
miracle upon previous OCCASIONS. He
has grown extraordinarily cunning. He
never roosts for two successive nights
upon the same tree, and rarely gobbles
without RAINING away from tue sound
himself has made. But the last cluck
has fairly reused him. He begins to
strut; his slender 1.-THE body sweils; the
beautiful plumage OF his breast is rntiied
his neck curves, his wattles grow scar
let. The long feathers OF his wings
brush the ground, and the tail rises and
opens like a fan. On he comes, with a
hitehing gait, glowing in the sunshine
like purple and gold. The siren cluck
is twice repeated, and scarce fifty yards
i~ntervenes between him and the murder
GUS rifle. Tho hunter, anxious to draw
him still nearer, in order TO shoot him
through the head, fools him to the top
of mis- bent AT lengta he hops upon a
fallen stump, some twenty yards distant
from the doom that await hun. The
sharp crack.of a rifle rings through the
forest-the gathering plunage. the
proud step, the piercing eye avail hun
not, and without a movement o. the
muscles he has fallen a headless body
to the earth, To those English sports
men-and they are many--who find
pheasant shooting tame, We would re-
commend a visit in the superb autumn
of North America to the Southern
States, In the hope that many such
gobblers as we have described may tall
THAR unarrinO hnIlata.