. Birds that hunt and are hunted : life histories of one hundred and seventy birds of prey, game birds and water-fowls . e to the Gulf coast,and westward to the Plains. Season—Permanent resident. Once abundant so far north as Maine, Ontario, and Dakota,this noble game bird, now hunted to very near the extinctionpoint, has had its range so restricted by the advance of civiliza-tion, for which it has a well grounded antipathy, that the mostinaccessible mountains or swampy bottom lands, the bordersof woodland streams that have never echoed to the whistleof a steamboat, are not too remote a habita
. Birds that hunt and are hunted : life histories of one hundred and seventy birds of prey, game birds and water-fowls . e to the Gulf coast,and westward to the Plains. Season—Permanent resident. Once abundant so far north as Maine, Ontario, and Dakota,this noble game bird, now hunted to very near the extinctionpoint, has had its range so restricted by the advance of civiliza-tion, for which it has a well grounded antipathy, that the mostinaccessible mountains or swampy bottom lands, the bordersof woodland streams that have never echoed to the whistleof a steamboat, are not too remote a habitation. Originally nomore suspicious and wild than a heath hen, according to thetestimony of early New Englanders, much persecution has finallymade it the most cunning and wary, the most unapproachablebird to be found ; but what possible chance of escape has anywild creature once man, with the manifold aids of civilization athis disposal, determines to possess it ? It cannot be long at thepresent rate of shrinkage before the turkey, in spite of its marvel-ous cleverness, will follow the great auk to extinction. 288. WILD TURKEY. \ 5 Life-size. Pheasants and Turkeys It is the Mexican turkey, introduced into Europe early in thesixteenth century, that still abundantly flourishes in poultry yardseverywhere, and furnishes our Thanksgiving feasts. Anotherbird of the southwest, the Rio Grande turkey, that ranges overnortheastern Mexico and southeastern Texas, and a fourth andsmaller variety, confined to southern Florida, show constant, ifslight variations in plumage, but little in nature, which awakensthe hope that if American sportsmen were to introduce thesouthern races where the present species has been killed off, andprotect the birds, magnificent sport might be indefinitely pre-served. Beginning at early dawn in spring, and before leaving hisperch, the male turkey gobbles a shrill, clear love song, quitedifferent at this season, before fat chokes his utterance, from thecoarse gob
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
