The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-10-18
TURKEYS AND WILD CATS.

In November, when the leaves have
fallen, hunting turkeys by moonlight is
a delightful sport. A writer in the St.
Louis Globe Democrat who has enjoyed
many nights In the Missouri forests, in
pursuit of the sleeping game, says: The
turkeys usually select as a roosting place
the tall trees that grow along rivers or
large sloughs, and perch upon the
branches that reach far out over the
water. In the fall of 1886 went out for
a moonlight hunt with Judge Goodin, OF
Mississippi County. The Judge then
resided on farm about three miles from
Charleston, on the shore of Kelly's Lake.
Just across from Judge Goodin's resi-
dence, stretching up and down the lake
shore and back clear to the Mississippi,
is almost an unbroken forest.
About 8 o'clock we took boat and
rowed quietly across the stretch of water
to where the big cypress trees poke their
giant arms out over the surface OF the
lake. Stealthily we glided beneath the
branches, closely scanning the naked
limbs for turkeys, We had gone per
haps half mile when we came to little
pocket that ran back 100 yards or so into
the timber. The moon was shining full
and clear into the opening, and every
tree could be examined with perfect ease
from our position in the boat.
Two dark objects high up on an old
cypress brought from the Judge warn
ing.
''Hish! Turkeys!"
Cautiously we padded to within easy
range. Each picking our bird, we took
deliberate aim.
"One, two, three-fre!" said the
Judge, and both of our guns sent @
laundering report away through the
gloomy forest, and down from their
perches tumbled the game that our buck
shot had penetrated.
There was a splashing and snarlIng In
the water, and as we rushed out to where
the foundering objects were, imagine
our surprise when we discovered that we
had brought down, not pair of turkeys,
but brace of good sized and vicious
looking wildcats. We waited until the
feline furies gave their last kick and then
lifted them into the boat and went our
way in pursuit of the game We started
out to find, and we found it a mile above
in abundance. Fully hundred turkeys
were revealed by the moon to our eager
gaze, and seven of the flock went home
with us beside oar four-legged forest
rOamers.
Another good time for turkey shooting
is when it is showing hard. Then the
turkeys huddle together in the thick
brush or in the top of a fallen tree. At
such time they are easily approached,
but the hunter had better take some one
with him on trip of this kind that is
well vefsed in woodcraft and knows
something of the places where the hocks
habitually resort. For unless the hunter
knows the country well, instead of find
ing turkeys in snow storm he is likely
to get lost himself.
Some of the settlers in Cape Girardeau
County trap turkeys in the winter sea
son. This is done by digging trench,
say feet long, 2 feet deep, and foot
wide. A little house is built of fence
rails, after the style of quail trap, but,
of course, correspondingly large. One
end Of the trench runs under the trap
about a foot. All around and over the
top straw is scattered, and corn and
wheat are spread along the trench into
the trap, where it is thickly strewn.
The turkey picks up the grain clear to
the end of this trench, which is under
the rail house. The bird then steps up
and tackles the corn and wheat that are
thickly strewn over the ground in the
interior of the trap. Sometimes whole
flock will follow an old gobbler through
the trench, and not until they think of
going do they realize that they are trap
ped. Strange as it may appear, the tur-
keys never thing of going down and out
through the trench.
A farmer who lives near Lakeville, and
whose house is just at the edge of the
timber, captured twenty three wild tur-
keys in novel way last winter. Every
morning the farmer noticed wild turkeys
around his corn crib, and, forgetting to
shut the door once, he was surprised on
going to the crib to see flock of turkeys
run out and fly away.
The next morning he put up job on
the unsuspecting but hungry birds. He
arranged pulley, through which he
passed thin rope, and attached one end
to the door so it could be pulled shut
from the other erd He concealed HIM
self under a pile of straw early the next
morning, and before long the flock of
turkeys came out of the woods straight
to the corn crib and entered it, when he
pulled on his rope, closed the door, and
caught the full flock, numbering twenty
three. The old gobbler was a beauty
and the biggest one ever seen in the To-
cality. He weighed twenty seven pounds
was quite fat, and the beard-the tuft of
hair which hangs down from the breast
was eight inches long. The beauty of
his plumage on the neck, wings and
breast is indescribable. 1t glittered
with score of hues of metallic luster-
gold, green, brown, purple, etc, and
these tints cast rays like those which
fash from the feathers of the humming
l.,