The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1894-11-02
A VIRGINIA TURKEY HUNT.

Twelve full-grown turkeys had
flown from the mountain to feed with
in few hundred yards of us, in abso-
lutely open ground but we had not
climbed the mountains after them for
! five days without knowing that to all
intents and purposes they were safe,
and that we should probably again
miss getting fair shot. A hat incau-
! tiously shown would send the whole
| gang, like arrows shot from q bow,
| far back into the big ridges. To have
made a long circuit to creep up behind
the fringe of sycamores would have
been simply an amateurish attempt to
| outwit the widest of hunted creatures.
We had come to the conclusion that
| there was slight rolling swale in the
centre of the big field, and had worm
| ed ourselves through the frosty Stub
| bic and dewberry bushes to the last
| safe point by the comfortable process
OF lying prone ON the ground and
| pushing long with one leg. Three
hundred yards of this supine progress
had left us with hands entirely too
| numb to feel the prick of the briars in
! them, with muddy guns, and, worst
of all, with three gunshot lengths still
between us and the turkeys. There
| we lay, now and then peeping hatless
over the gently rising KNOLL Never
in my hunting career have l been in a
more tantaliZing situation, nor have I
had such another opportunity to
study the home life of one of the shy
| est birds in the world.
Eight were hens, scarcely one-third
the size of the four magnificent ''gob-
blers, who every now and then paus-
ed in their feeding to hold their heads
high up, in statuesque suspicion, on
general principles. What majestic
birds they are As one Strengthens
himself proudly up in rigid attention,
until he seems fairly as tall as a man,
his feminine convoy stop their dainty
peckings to lend him their ears, until
he is slowly satisfied with the situa-
ton, and begins again his keen-eyed
search for ragweed seed and last years
wheat, or with a quick low "cur-rt''
runs swiftly forward to faneied bon
ANA.
Presently, as the rising sun ereeps
over the field, and reaches their valley
too, one of the bearded fellows sud-
denly ruffies up his whole panoply of
wbrushed feathers to catch the
first pure rays, until he, looks as big
as barn, :" according to Bob's ecstatic
whisper even at this distance we can
see the blaze of the bronze and green
and gold iridescence on the powerful
neck and back. Now two of these dark
tinted champions have little alterca-
over most unmistakable preference
shown by coquettish hen, and their
dignity Is for the moment entirely lost
in a series of awkward, even ridicu-
lous antics preparatory to a battle,
that is cut short by q warning atti-
tude OH the part of the patriarch, who
has looked on, or rather hasn't look
ed on, the scuffle with the greatest
contempt.
Before long it was evident that the
enemy had about finished their break
fast they moved slowly away from us
toward the river-bank. II wonder if
they wont take a drink p gesticu-
lated over to Bob, feeling a ray of
hope. ''If they do, We'll charge" he
flashed back. Sure enough, present
ly they disappeared one by one in the
brush along the river. We were ON
our knees, when suddenly up bobbed
the head of the rear-guard, and we
flattened out again, to see the whole
flock reappear and make their way a
few yards down the stream. When
this was repeated again and again we
were more wary, and finally, after
they had been swallowed up about a
hundred heart beats, we jumped ON
our cramped legs. made the sprint of
our lives TO the river, plunged through
the bush into the sycamores, with
eyes straining In every direction, and
were rewarded by hearing d rush of
powerful wings beating the air as the
great birds took to the mountains.
Only of the very last one did catch
glimpse, as he shot down the bend
of and across the river with curved
wings a load Of buckshot went tear
ing through the tree-tops in the desper-
ate hope of reaching some point in his
orbit about the same time that he did,
and heavy plunge in the river
brought me bucking through the I'M
derbrush away from Bob's lamenta-
tions. The lucky snapshot had stop
ped big gobbler in midfiight, and he
was wildly beating the shadows ON
the farther side of the narrow river
He was the first bird after a week of
fruitless hunting, and never did l take
an ice-water bath SO blithely as in the
sortie through the Wallawhatoolah to
capture that turkey. AS l fetched
legs over my shoulder, his rich feath-
trailed out behind on the water, Bob
certified exultingly from the bank
that it was the patriarch.
He was trussed up to a dogwood-
tree out of the way of four-footed
thieves, and we hunted happily for
the rest of the day without shot.
Charles d. LGnier, IN Harper's