Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/240

 these sporting parties, where, for dinner, which is generally taken in some part of the wood appointed for the rendezvous, they had above sixty of them roasted. Their flesh is white and exceedingly tender, and this method of dressing them is preferable to any other.

Wild turkies, which begin to grow very scarce in the southern states, are still extremely numerous in the west. In the parts least inhabited they are so very tame, that they may be shot with a pistol. In the east, on the contrary, and more particularly in the environs of the seaports, it is very difficult to approach them. They are not alarmed at a noise, {176} but they have a very piercing sight, and as soon as they perceive the gunner they fly with such swiftness that it is impossible for a dog to over-*take them for several minutes; and when they see themselves on the point of being taken, they escape by resuming their flight. Wild turkies usually frequent the swamps and the sides of creeks and rivers, whence they only go out morning and evening. They perch upon the tops of the loftiest trees, where, notwithstanding their size, it is not always easy to perceive them. When they are not frightened, they return upon the same trees for several weeks together.

For the space of eight hundred leagues east of Mississippi there is only this one species of the wild turkey. They are much larger than those that we have in our farm-yards. In autumn and winter they chiefly feed on chesnuts and acorns. At that time some are shot that weigh from thirty to forty pounds. The variety of domestic turkies proceeds originally from this species of wild turkies; and when it has not been crossed with the common species, it preserves the primitive colour of its plumage, and that of the feet, which are of a deep red.