BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN GAME PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 
 
 
It does not show so strongly in the hens. You will 
never see a pure-bred wild turkey if, when the gob- 
bler is in strut, he shows red on the ends of the 
caruncles. They will show blue almost always, 
or bluish-white. On the top of the head there will 
not be shown any blue at all, but a shining white. 
In the domestic bird, and any bird that has any 
domestic blood in him, although you get him in 
the woods, and he may be apparently a wild turkey, 
when he is in strut that spot on the top of his head, 
which in the wild bird is white, will show a streak 
of blue, although the balance of the head may be 
as blue as the wild turkey's head. Between the 
wattles of the wild bird you will see the red mark- 
ings, but not on the ends. There is very little red 
about the head of the wild bird when he is in strut. 
I have seen many birds in museums that had their 
heads painted, but never painted right. They 
always put too much red in it, and from my in- 
vestigation, and from studying the bird, I find more 
gobblers can be told by the color on their heads 
than on their feathers. I have bred birds from the 
southern branch of the eastern strain whose fea- 
thers were as dark as these [indicating feathers just 
shown by Dr. Fisher], and in three-fourths of the 
wild birds the color was just as high, but they 
would always show the cross by the color of the 
head. 
  Of course there is considerable red in the wattles 
in the non-breeding season. The red in the breeding 
season extends only between the wattles, but when 
the gobbler goes in strut, it turns a brilliant blue 
or bluish-white. 
 
     Prevailing Prices For Birds and Eggs 
 
  Wild turkeys of breeding age are quoted this 
year at $25 for gobblers and $15 for hens, when 
purchased in small numbers. Considerably lower 
prices are usually asked when birds are purchased 
in numbers. Eggs sold during the past breeding 
season at from $1.25 to $1.50 each. Twelve eggs 
are commonly regarded as constituting a clutch. 
  In ordering, specify pure wild stock and reserve 
the privilege of returning in twenty-four hours if 
birds do not conform to the wild standard. For 
breeding or stocking, two-year-old gobblers should 
be specified. Hens that will be one year old when 
the breeding season arrives in which it is proposed 
to employ them are all right. If any white shows 
in the tail of the birds ordered, send them back 
unless you are willing to use stock that is not pure. 
  Specify wing-clipped stock if you wish to use 
your birds as breeders. This renders them per- 
manently incapable of flying and permits a real 
economy in fence construction. 
  Place your order for birds in June or July for 
delivery in October. 
  In ordering eggs insist upon the right to examine 
and return at once if not properly packed. I know 
of some heavy losses incurred during the past sum- 
mer through neglect in this matter. 
  This Association will gladly attend to the placing 
of orders for prospective buyers. 
 
  The Natural History of the Wild Turkey 
 
  Few of our native game birds have a more inter- 
esting history than the wild turkey. The scientific 
designation of the eastern bird is Meleagris gallopavo 
silvestris. Its range is given in the check list of the 
American Ornithologist's Union as "Eastern United 
States from Nebraska, Kansas, Western Oklahoma 
and eastern Texas to central Pennsylvania and south 
to the Gulf coast; formerly north to South Dakota, 
southern Ontario and southern Maine." 
  From this one can see out of how much of its 
range this splendid bird has been cut. There are 
still thousands of acres in New York and the New 
England states where he would thrive. With the 
better enforcement of game laws and clearer under- 
 
 
standing of what is necessary in game protection 
that have come within the past decade, it would 
seem that some effort should be made to bring the 
turkey back to this section. 
   Audubon speaks of purchasing wild turkeys in 
Boston in the winter of 1832-33, though he indicates 
that they were scarce in that section. A quarter 
of a century earlier, however, he remarks that they 
were so abundant in Kentucky that they did not 
bring so much in the market as poultry. He states 
that he saw them offered as low as three pence each 
for ten to twelve-pound birds, and adds that those 
weighing from twenty-five to thirty pounds were 
considered well sold when they brought twenty-five 
cents. 
         Four Species of Wild Turkey 
 
  There is also found in the East, but confined to 
southern Florida, what is known as the Florida 
turkey (Meleagris gallopavo osceola.) It resembles 
its eastern brother, but is smaller, and its primaries 
have much smaller, broken white markings. 
  In Southwestern United States and Northern 
Mexico we have the Mexican Turkey (Meleagris 
galopavo merriami), and a bird of somewhat similar 
but much more restricted range known as Meleagris 
intermedia. 
  Our domestic turkeys are derived from the Mexi- 
can bird and it, apparently, is more easily bred in 
captivity than the wild bird of the East. 
  The following interesting suggestion as to the 
origin of the word "turkey" is contained in "Amer- 
ican Game Bird Shooting," by Dr. George Bird 
Grinnell: 
  "It has been suggested that the name by which 
we know the bird is a corruption of a Hebrew word, 
tukki, said to mean peacock, that this term was 
applied to the turkey, when it was received in 
Spain, by the Jews, who then monopolized the busi- 
ness of selling poultry, and that from this point of 
first introduction the name spread with the bird 
over a part of Europe. 
  "This bird, taken to Europe by the Spaniards 
soon after the conquest, was the Mexican turkey." 
 
 
HELP GET FIRE TOWERS 
                           ON LONG ISLAND 
 
Every Owner of Real Estate There Should Make a 
  Contribution For This Cause. Of Especial Bene- 
  fit to Sportsmen-Many Fires Now. 
 
E VERY land-owner on Long Island will be in- 
terested and will want to contribute, we 
     think, to the two fire towers which are to be 
located there, through the progressive administra- 
tion of Mr. George D. Pratt, conservation commis- 
sioner of New York, who has promised to man 
these towers with watchers, -provided those who 
live on the island are willing to contribute the sum 
of $1,600 that is necessary for their construction. 
The towers will probably be located, one near 
Medford and the other in the triangle formed by 
Riverhead, Quogue and Flanders, but they will 
serve to give needed protection to a large section 
of the island. 
  With characteristic generosity, Mr. William B. 
Boulton, president of the Flanders Club at Flanders, 
Long Island, has personally underwritten $800 of 
the amount necessary. It would seem only just 
that all who have real estate holdings on the island 
should have a share in this work, and it is hoped 
that such of these as read this article will send a 
 
 
contribution at once, either to Mr. Boulton, at 100 
Broadway, or to the American Game Protective 
Association, 233 Broadway, New York City. 
   The frequent fires that occur on waste lands on 
 Long Island have done greater damage than the 
 public realizes. They have not only destroyed a 
 great deal of bird life, but at times have seriously 
 injured arable lands and proved a real menace to 
 buildings. Once the fire towers, manned by watch- 
 ers, are established it will be mandatory for officers 
 of the law to lend their assistance whenever a fire 
 is discovered, and also to use their utmost energies 
 in bringing to justice those responsible for the fire. 
 It seems to be well established that some of these 
 fires are of incendiary origin, though the majority 
 of them probably occur through carelessness. 
 Some appreciation of the need of these towers can 
 be formed from a perusal of a letter recently sent the 
 BULLETIN by Mr. William T. Davis, a well- 
 known entomologist connected with the American 
 Museum of Natural History, who has done ex- 
 tensive field work throughout the island. 
 "I visited Yaphank several times in 1916," says 
 Mr. Davis, "and on one occasion was told by the 
 owner of a farm that she had been fighting a fire 
 along the railroad track all morning, with such as- 
 sistance as she could get. She said that she had 
 telephoned to the railroad station and was informed 
 that the fire had been started by their men to burn 
 the underbrush along the track. The owner of the 
 farm said, however, that she found the fire creeping 
 up into the woods, and had put it out in places. 
 She asked me if I wouldn't go to the woods after 
 dinner and see how the fire was getting on. This 
 I did, and found the fire had left the right of way 
 of the railroad in several places and was again in 
 the woods. I looked up and down the tracks for 
 employees of the railroad, but there was none in 
 sight, so I not only put out the fire in the woods, 
 but also at the several places that were still burn- 
 ing along the railroad. 
 "When I first visited Yaphank in 1907 it was 
 one of the most beautiful and attractive places in 
 the rural part of Long Island. The woods about 
 the farm I have mentioned, which lies to the east- 
 ward of the village, showed no signs of having been 
 burned; there were many large oaks, a few pitch 
 pines, and many old hedge rows about, with a mis- 
 cellaneous growth of tangled vegetation most in- 
 teresting to a naturalist. Then came the great 
 forest fire of May 14, 1911, which started near 
 Manorville-it is said by the railroad-and burned 
 five or six miles westward to Yaphank, destroying 
 almost all of the trees in its path, especially the 
 oaks. A few of the pitch pines survived. I found 
 three dead box or land turtles, and even partridges 
 were said to have perished. 
 "Yaphank cannot in this generation have the 
 same interest to one looking for the details in 
 Nature that it possessed before the great fire of 
 May, 1911. It will take the woodland a half cen- 
 tury to recover. 
 "I am sure if the railroad officials fully under- 
 stood how many people really care for such things 
 and travel on their road for that very purpose, they 
 would be more careful. This, of course, is leaving 
out entirely the consideration of the great loss of 
property, as, for instance, when, in the fire of 1911, 
the roof of a building on the farm above mentioned 
was partly burned, but fortunately the flames were 
extinguished. The Central Railroad of New Jersey 
takes much better care in protecting the woods, 
and I find it much more pleasant to visit Lakehurst 
and other places along its line." 
 
 
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