LOUISIANA CONSERVATION REVIEW 
 
 
THE WILD TURKEY, ITS HUNTING AND 
           FUTURE IN LOUISIANA 
 
 
             (Continued from page 7) 
doorsman, and old time turkey hunter, and assist- 
ant secretary of the Department of Conservation 
prior to his death, used to tell an amusing anec- 
dote of his first meeting with Mr. Charles Jordan. 
His story is that while waiting for a train on his 
return from a turkey hunt, he decided to practice 
with his turkey caller. This caller had been pur- 
chased from Jordan, whom he had never seen. 
After he had practiced for some time on the caller,, 
the man standing near him walked up to him and 
said: 
    "You do that rather well." 
    "Do you think so?" asked Renaud. 
    "I do," was the reply. 
    "Would you like to try?" questioned Renaud, 
handing the call to the stranger. 
    "Yes," said the stranger, taking the caller and 
giving an exhibition of calling that was a reve- 
lation to Renaud. 
    "Why, that's splendid," remarked Renaud, 
"You call far better than I do.' 
    "I ought to," answered the stranger, "I made 
that call." 
    "Then you must be Charles L. Jordan," ex- 
claimed Captain Renaud. 
    "That's who I am," said the stranger, "And 
 you must be John K. Renaud." 
    Thus began a friendship which led to many 
 hunts together and which ended only with Jor- 
 dan's death. Mr. McIlhenny has inserted Captain 
 Renaud's picture in his publication of Jordan's 
 book. 
 
 
      HUNTING METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS 
    The most sportsmanlike methods of hunting 
turkeys are from a blind,--attracting the turkey's 
attention by the use of callers,-and hunting with 
dogs. To shoot turkeys while they are roosting, 
either early in the morning or after sundown, is 
very unsportsmanlike. 
    Jordan enthusiastically praises the rifle as the 
most sportsmanlike gun to use in hunting turkeys. 
He discusses the merits of several old time cali- 
bres, including the thirty-eight calibre and low 
power ammunition, but he finally declares his 
preference for the 32-20. I believe that this cali- 
bre is the best to use, particularly when it is 
loaded with modern ammunition, as it prevents 
the mutilation of the game. 
    Jordan's choice of shotguns is the twelve 
gauge full-choke. With this gun he uses the No. 6 
shot for the head and No. 3 and 4 shots for the 
body. He does not believe that a turkey should be 
hunted with buckshot. He gives as his reason the 
small chance of buckshots reaching the vital parts 
of the turkey at, say, forty yards. Instead it is 
very likely that the turkey will be knocked over 
temporarily and will run away to die a lingering 
death. Mr. Jordan's views in the matter of guns 
seem to be the general opinion of all the old turkey 
hunters with whom I have talked. Most of these 
old timers say they aim always at the head of the 
turkey, avoiding the body if possible. This, how- 
ever, may be taken with a large grain of salt, 
especially with the turkey as scarce as it is now. 
 
             TYPES OF TURKEY CALLS 
    The illustrations on page 4, will give you a 
 fair idea of what the various types of turkey calls 
 used in Louisiana are like. 
 
 
                          DEPARTMENT TO ISSUE NEW FISH BULLETIN 
                                      (Continued from page 81) 
THE BOWFIN, GRINDLE oa OHOUIPIQUE 
 
 
               Ames calva 
  Known   throughout Louisiana  by  the  old 
French name of Choupique, the Bowfin is a re- 
markable species and there has arisen about it 
a wealth of popular legend. The Bowfin is the 
sole survivor of a great fish family that first 
appeared in geology In the age of those great 
Lizards, the Dinosaurs, and it may thus be said 
to be "a living fossil." Uniting many primitive 
characters the Bowfin, like the Gar, is provided 
with a cellular air bladder by means of which 
it ,rt  nn eoi~eeqsrv resniration. Indeed, live 
 
 
Bowfin have been reported to have been plowed 
up in the lowland fields of Louisiana weeks after flood waters had receded
and at a time when the drainage of the land had so tar 
progressed that cultivation was begun. 
   Although held in Louisiana In low esteem as food (cut, split and dried,
and used chiefly In making Jambalaya) it is nevertheless 
established that when properly smoked, Bowfin make "one of the best
of smoked fishes." 
   Among the many superstitions concerning the Bowfin, it Is told in Louisiana
that if the fish be wrapped in Spanish moss and 
buried with proper Incantations at the right phase of the moon, it will,
if dug up seven days later, be found to have changed into 
a moccasin snake. 
   Bowfins are nest builders, the male protecting the nest, guarding the
eggs and later caring for the young. So aggressive are 
they at this time that they will bite a pole pointed at them in the water.

    Bowfin reach a foot and a half to two feet In length, the female being
larger than the male. The male has a dense black spot 
of elliptical outline with yellowish to bright orange border at the base
of the upper rays of the caudal fin. 
    Bowfln are savage and predacious and have been known to cut a two-pound
fish completely In two with a single snap of their 
powerful Jaws. They give a hard fight when caught with rod and reel. 
 
 
32 
 
 
July, 1.92