xxiv TABLE OF CONTENTS.
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The Virginian*Partridge, . Perdix virginianâ, . 388
The Belted Kingsfisher, . . . . Alcedo Alcyon, . . . . 394
The Great Carolina Wren, . . Troglodytes ludovicianus, . 399
The Tyrant Fly-catcher, . . . Muscícapa tyrannus, . 403
The Prairie Titlark, . . . . . Anthus pipiens, . . . . 408
THE ORIGINAL PAINTER, . . • • - » . • . • . • • • • • . 410
The Fish Hawk or Osprey, . . Falco Haliaetus, . . . . 415
. Caprimulgus vociferus, . . 422
Troglodytes oedon, . . . 427
The Blue-grey Fly-catcher, . . . Muscícapa coerulea, . . . 431
The Yellow-throated Warbler,. . . Sylvia pensilis, . . . . 434
LOUISVILLE IN KENTUCKY, . . • • • . • • • •. • • . 437
The Black Warrior, . . . . . Falco Harlani, . . . 441
. Corvus Jloridanus, . . . 444
The Autumnal Warbler, . . . . Sylvia autumnalis, . . . 447
The Nashville Warbler, . . . . Sylvia rubricapilla, . . . 450
The Black-and-white Creeper, . . 452
THE ECCENTRIC NATURALIST, .
The Broad-winged Hawk, . . . Falco pennsylvanicus, . 461
. Falco columbarius, . . . 466
The Sea-side Finch, . . . . .. . Fringilla marítima, . . . 470
The Grass Finch or Bay-winged |
Bunting, )
Fringilla gramínea, . . . 473
The Yellow-poll Warbler, . . . 476
SciPIO AND THE BEAR, . . . • • . . «1:5 tj 3$ .•».. . . 479
. Corvus Bullockii, . , . . 483
The Little Screech Owl, . . . . 486
The White-bellied Swallow, Hirundo bicolor, . . . . 491
. Icterus pecoris, . . . . 493
The Marsh Wren, . Troglodytes palustris, . 500
. 503
ORNITHOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY
T H E W I L D T U R K E Y.
MELEAGBIS GALLOPAVO, LINN.
P L A T E I. MALE.
THE great size and beauty of the Wild Turkey, its value as a delicate
and highly prized article of food, and the circumstance of its being the
origin of the domestic race now generally dispersed over both continents,
render it one of the most interesting of the birds indigenous to the United
States of America.
The unsettled parts of the States of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and
Indiana, an immense extent of country to the north-west of these districts,
upon the Mississippi and Missouri, and the vast regions drained by these
rivers from their confluence to Louisiana, including the wooded parts of
Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama, are the most abundantly supplied
with this magnificent bird. It is less plentiful in Georgia and the
Carolinas, becomes still scarcer in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and is now
very rarely seen to the eastward of the last mentioned States. In the
course of my rambles through Long Island, the State of New York,
and the country around the Lakes, I did not meet with a single individual,
although I was informed that some exist in those parts. Turkeys
are still to be found along the whole line of the Alleghany Mountains,
where they have become so wary as to be approached only with
extreme difficulty. While, in the Great Pine Forest, in 1829, I found
a single feather that had been dropped from the tail of a female, but saw
no bird of the kind. Farther eastward, I do not think they are now to
be found. I shall describe the manners of this bird as observed in the
countries where it is most abundant, and having resided for many years in
Kentucky and Louisiana, may be understood as referring chiefly to them.
A