173. Champlain was clearly correct in his conclusion. The wild Turkey, _Meleagris gallopavo_, was not uncommon in New England at that period. Wood and Josselyn and Higginson, all speak of it fully:-- "Of these, sometimes there will be forty, threescore and a hundred of a flocke; sometimes more, and sometimes lesse; their feeding is Acornes, Hawes, and Berries; some of them get a haunt to frequent our _English_ corne: In winter, when the snow covers the ground, they resort to the Sea shore to look for Shrimps, and such small Fishes at low tides. Such as love Turkie hunting, most follow it in winter after a new-falne Snow, when hee may followe them by their tracts; some have killed ten or a dozen in half a day; if they can be found towards an evening and watched where they peirch, if one come about ten or eleven of the clock, he may shoote as often as he will, they will sit, unlesse they be slenderly wounded. These Turkies remaine all the yeare long, the price of a good Turkey cocke is foure shillings; and he is well worth it for he may be in weight forty pound: a Hen, two shillings."--_Wood's New England Prospect_, 1634, Prince Society ed., Boston, p. 32. "The _Turkie_, who is blacker than ours; I haue heard several credible persons affirm, they haue seen _Turkie Cocks_ that have weighed forty, yea sixty pound; but out of my personal experimental knowledge I can assure you, that I haue eaten my share of a _Turkie Cock_, that when he was pull'd and garbidg'd, weighed thirty [9] pound; and I haue also seen threescore broods of young _Turkies_ on the side of a marsh, sunning themselves in a morning betimes, but this was thirty years since, the _English_ and the _Indians_ having now destroyed the breed, so that 'tis very rare to meet with a wild _Turkie_ in the Woods: But some of the _English_ bring up great store of the wild kind, which remain about their Houses as tame as ours in _England_."--_New England's Rarities_, by John Josselyn, Gent., London, 1672, Tuckerman's ed., pp. 41, 42. "Here are likewise abundance of Turkies often killed in the Woods, farre greater then our English Turkies, and exceeding fat, sweet, and fleshy, for here they haue aboundance of feeding all the yeere long, as Strawberriees, in Summer at places are full of them and all manner of Berries and Fruits."--_New England Plantation_, by Francis Higginson, London, 1630. _Vide_ also _Bradford's Hist. Plym. Plantation_, 1646, Deane's ed., Boston, 1856. p. 105.