ing, becoming very scarce, and, addicted as all classes of people in that state are to an intemperate predeliction for destroying every living aboriginal creature, their total extinction must be near at hand. They yet abound in this Ohio State, and possibly will, for many years; till it becomes more peopled.

I cannot pretend that wild turkeys differ in any striking manner from the domestic ones I have every where seen, except the length of their wings; their superior plumage, their attitude and lively expression in walking. The cock too has a beard composed of about one hundred hairs which hangs in a streamer from under the bick. The hair is thicker than a pig's bristle, and the length accords with the age. In the young the beard is hardly perceptible, in the old it descends more than half a foot. I have killed a wild turkey cock which weighed thirty pounds and whose beard was ten

inches long: the flesh was execrable, nearly as hard as iron, and as black as jet. The young on the contrary are white and tender, delicate meat, and of exquisite flavor.

Wild turkeys are gregarious. The flocks from fifty to sixty. They are migratory. They winter to the southward and return in the spring to the deepest recesses of the woods, where they construct their nests with such care and concealment, that few instances ever occur of the eggs or young being found. Where eggs have been obtained and hatched under a domestic turkey, the young shew great disposition to thrive and remain about the house very contentedly till their first spring, when they rise, without indicating a previous talent for flying, into the air, take a few circles round the heads of their old friends and make for a wilderness whence they never more

return.

Having chatted with my Mandau associate for some time on this and other subjects, the hours were so much beguiled, that it was full time to make some kind of shade under which to rest. This was done in a few moments: two forked poles were cut and driven in the ground six feet from each other. A third pole was cut and placed on three forks. Against this upper cross pole were laid branches so matted with shrubs, that by lying to lecward no wind could be felt, and, by making a bed of dry leaves of good depth, and keeping the feet towards the fire, no cold or inconvenience could be apprehended. For fear this preparatory business should expose you to too sleepy a visitation, and my letter to contempt, I close for the present.

THE END OF VOL. I.