The Squirrel Hunters of Ohio; or, Glimpses of Pioneer Life by N. E. Jones

Author:N. E. Jones [Jones, N. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History
ISBN: 4064066167387
Publisher: Good Press
Published: 2019-12-16T05:00:00+00:00

The number of species of birds found at various times in Ohio amount to two hundred and ninety-two; while the number breeding in the state is placed at one hundred and twenty-nine; and if the probable summer residents are counted the number would be increased to one hundred and seventy-one. An eminent ornithologist says in a recent work: “To cast the horoscope of the bird-life of the future is uncertain work, and perhaps without profit; but the stars certainly predict utter extermination of the finest of all game birds—the wild turkey—and the diminution to the point of extermination of the ruffed grouse, the quail, the wood duck and wild pigeon.”[20]

Game birds as well as song birds would from natural causes alone diminish in number, as their selected homes or breeding places become destroyed by clearing up the country. But in addition to this, the unseasonable and inhuman destruction by means of firearms has become so alarmingly great as to foretell that at no distant day most of the desirable species of birds that are permanent residents will have been destroyed.

It is generally known by the older “Squirrel Hunters” that from their first knowledge of the North-west to beginning of the railroad era, 1855, Ohio was a paradise for the sportsman with dog and gun. The fields abounded with covies of quail; the forests with wild turkeys, grouse, pigeons and squirrels; and the streams with ducks and geese. Up to the period named the conditions of the country underwent but few changes detrimental to the propagation and preservation of game, and the abundant supplies afforded amusement and subsistence equaled at present nowhere within the limits of the United States.

The settlements as yet contained many reservations of continuous tracts of undisturbed forest, wild ranges, islands along the larger water-courses, overflowing lands, unmolested parts of large estates, military and school reservations, etc., often embracing sections of rich soil heavily timbered and densely covered with an undergrowth of bushes, and in topography well adapted for resorts and homes of game birds and beasts.

Few, if any, of those timbered reservations failed to be occupied by every species and variety of nature’s household. Some locations from time immemorial had been the favorite and undisputed habitation of that most wonderful American bird, the wild turkey. For he is not migratory, nor an aimless wanderer of the forest. His instincts and attachments to place, the home of his ancestors, are so great that generations after generations live and die in the same selected site of wild territory. No persecution can induce him to abandon his accustomed haunts. Nothing but death or the removal of his forest ends his family.

The area of his home requires several square miles, and includes a nursery, feeding grounds, ranches, roosts and places of refuge in times of danger. And if by pursuit he is obliged to flee beyond the limit of his range, he returns to his associates, to his familiar trees, rocks and mountain streams.

The turkey is indigenous to America, and not found wild in any other part of the world.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.