52 GKOUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



white-oak acorns, chinquapins, chestnuts, pecan nuts, black persim- 

 mons, fruit of prickly pear, leguminous seeds, all cultivated grains, 

 and tender tops of plants.'' Wild turkeys feed also on mountain rice 

 {Oryzopsis pringlei), mesquite beans, sedge, poa grass, and composite 

 flowers. 



Florence Merriam Bailey, in writing of the wild turkey in New 

 Mexico, says : ^ 



Mr. Vilas, a cattleman of the country, told us that in the fall they go down 

 to the nut pine and juniper mesas In the Glorieta region and, gathering at the 

 few springs that furnish drinking places, are shot by wagon loads by the Mexi- 

 cans. The only specimen we obtained was taken July 27, at over 11,000 feet. 

 Its crop and gizzard held mainly grasshoppers and crickets, but also grass seed, 

 mariiH)sa lily buds, and strawberries, while its gizzai'd contained in addition 

 a few beetles. 



The wild turkey consumes both insect pests and seeds of weeds, but 

 now is nowhere abundant enough to have much effect on agriculture. 

 The domestic turkey's habit of hunting grasshoppers and of ' worm- 

 ing ' tobacco shows what might be expected from the wild species 

 were it sufficiently numerous. 



a Life Hist. N. A. Birds, [I], p. 114, 1892. 

 f-Auk, vol. 21, p. ;!52, 1904. 



