Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/423

Rh None of the flocks were large. They ranged from a dozen to thirty head to the 'drove.'

"Of predatory birds first mention belongs of right to 'the king of the air,' the great American White-headed Eagle, who in that locality was, for him, numerous. Turkey-buzzards could be always seen wheeling aloft, and occasionally some immense Vultures ; but we were not able to get a close inspection of any of them, for they kept out of shot. Had we not been so far north of the limits assigned by naturalists to the Condor, we should, from their size and flight, have believed these birds to be such. Hawks and Owls of many varieties were there, and Magpies and Jays were more plentiful than welcome, for they were very bold and great nuisances, pilfering our meat, springing our traps, and alarming game that we were stalking by screaming out at us ; in short, by making themselves generally detestable ; and small birds, not game, abounded in every wood and thicket — many of familiar kinds, many of strange ones."

The diversion of "Turkey-roosting," as it is called, is not without its attractions for the sportsman ; and being a mode of killing Turkeys only practicable in few places and at certain times, can be but occasionally indulged in, and so possesses the added charm of rarity. The full of the moon is the opportunity for Turkey- roosting, and the first necessity is to " roost your Turkeys." This is done by watching, from a little before to some time after sunset, on an eminence commanding a view of some range of timber in which Turkeys are likely to roost. Having marked them down, the shooter stealthily approaches the trees in which the birds are perching, and looks about until he can see one sitting. His object is then to "moon his Turkey" — that is to say, to get a partial Turkey eclipse of the moon by bringing his eyes, the bird, and that luminary in a line. This being accomplished, he brings his rifle to his shoulder, pointing it horizontally in a direction which would meet at right angles a perpendicular from the ground to the bird. In this position the moonlight falls full on the barrel of his rifle -and lights up its sights. The hunter draws the front sight well down in the notch of the hind one until he gets his "bead," then he carefully raises his weapon until the shadow of the Turkey falls upon it. As the rifle-sights darken, the hair-trigger is touched, and if the sportsman's nerve be steady, his eye and finger true, and his rifle what it ought to be, a prize well worth the exercise of his skill will drop with a heavy thud at his feet.

It was on returning from a night's sport of this kind that