Front matter

The grandest bird of the American continent

THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING

BY

EDWARD A. McILHENNY

Illustrated from Photographs

GARDEN CITYNEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1914

Copyright, 1912, 1913, 1914, by The Outdoor World Publishing Company

Copyright, 1914, by Doubleday, Page & Company

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction ix

CHAPTER

I. My Early Training with the Turkeys 3

II. Range, Variation, and Name 12

III. The Turkey Prehistoric 26

IV. The Turkey Historic 39

V. Breast Sponge—Shrewdness 104

VI. Social Relations—Nesting—The Young Birds 111

VII. Association of Sexes 119

VIII. Its Enemies and Food 134

IX. Habits of Association and Roosting 152

X. Guns I Have Used on Turkeys 163

XI. Learning Turkey Language—Why Does the Gobbler Gobble 170

XII. On Callers and Calling 181

XIII. Calling Up the Lovelorn Gobbler 198

XIV. The Indifferent Young Gobbler 213

XV. Hunting Turkey with a Dog 218

XVI. The Secret of Cooking the Turkey 233

XVII. Camera Hunting for Turkeys 238

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The grandest bird of the American continent. Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Plate I. Figs. 1 to 5. Types: M. antiqua; M. celer. Marsh 30

Plate II. Figs. 6 to 10. Views of the skulls of wild turkeys 45

Plate III. Fig. 11. Left lateral view of the skull of an old male wild turkey 60

Plate IV. Figs. 12 to 16. Views of the cranium and skull of the turkey 75

Plate V. Figs. 17 to 19. Views of the skull of wild turkeys, and skeleton of the left foot of a wild turkey 80

Plate VI. Figs. 20 to 23. Eggs of wild turkey 90

Plate VII. Fig. 24. Nest of a wild turkey in situ 102

Note the full chest of the gobbler on the left. This is the breast sponge 106

Nest located in thick brush on top of a ridge in Louisiana 112

Hen, wild turkey, and three young 116

The beginning of the strut 124

The chief of all his enemies is the "genus homo" 142

An ideal turkey country. They will go a long way to roost in trees growing in water 156

A hermit. It would take an expert turkey hunter to circumvent this bird 160

Big woods in Louisiana where the old gobblers roam at will. A delightful place in which to camp 174

Jordan's Turkey Call (cut in text) 183

I soon saw the old gobbler stealing slowly through the brush 190

"Cluck," "put," "put," there stands a gobbler, within twenty paces to the left 202

Suddenly there was a "Gil-obble-obble-obble," so near it made me jump 206

The soft, gentle quaver of the hen has no effect on the ear of the young gobbler 216