Wild Turkey
The familiar barnyard gobbler is the same species as the wild turkey. It has merely adapted itself, with the aid of man, to live with the other fowl of the farm rather than stay in woods where it first came from.
Everybody knows what the barnyard turkey looks like, since he is the traditional bird of the Thanksgiving and Christmas table.
Yet, this bird in the wild state is perhaps the most tricky and hardest to stalk of any of the game birds of America (due to its shy and alert nature) even though it is a large bird, our largest.
He is a recluse of the dense forests, hardly ever ranging in the open country particularly when men with guns are abroad. In the early days the wild turkey roamed over almost all the land, but the inroads of civilization caused him to retreat until today he is found only in the remotest woods and swamps.
Conservation departments of the various states where where he formerly lived in peace are trying to stage a comeback for him by restocking and protecting him from over hunting and predators. It is a long hard pull against heavy odds.
In New York State, for instance, stocking the woods of the state forests has gradually re-established the bird in several very small areas. Working from farmer stock bred with captured wild birds, a strain has been developed which seems to be holding on.
The southland states of Florida, Georgia and their neighbors have many areas where the wild turkey is still found in great abundance.
From: A Sportman's Guide to Game Birds
by: Ray Ovington - Enjoy - Don Trosper.
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