50 GROUSE AND WILD TtlBKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



of animal matter and 84.43 percent of vegetable matter. The animal 

 food consisted of insects — 15.15 percent — and miscellaneous inverte- 

 brates, such as spiders, snails, and myriapods — 0.42 percent. Grass- 

 hoppers furnished 13.92 percent, and beetles, flies, caterpillars, and 

 other insects 1.23 percent. 



The 84.43 percent of the bird's vegetable food was distributed as 

 follows : ' Browse,' 24.80 percent ; fruit, 32.98 percent ; mast, 4.60 per- 

 cent; other seeds, 20.12 percent; miscellaneous vegetable matter, 1.93 

 percent. 



The wild turkey is very fond of grasshoppers and crickets. Wil- 

 liam Hugh Robarts has observed a flock of a hundred busily catching 

 grasshoppers.** Vernon Bailey, of the Biological Survey, killed a 

 turkey at Corpus Christi, Tex., in May, 1900, that had eaten a large 

 number of grasshoppers and a sphinx moth. During the Nebraska 

 invasion of Rocky Mountain locusts. Professor Aughey examined the 

 contents of six wild turkey stomachs and crops collected during 

 August and September. Every bird had eaten locusts, in all amount- 

 ing to 259.^ The wild turkey has been known also to feed on the 

 cotton womi^" (Alabama argillacea), the leaf hoppers, and the leaf- 

 eating beetles {Chrysomela suturalis). The grasshopper {Arnilia 

 sp.) and the thousand-legs (Julus) form part of the turkey's bill of 

 fare. Tadpoles and small lizards also are included. 



Besides the bird shot on the Roanoke, already mentioned, the stom- 

 achs and crops of four other Virginia turkeys have been examined by 

 the Biological Survey. One of these contained only small quartz 

 pebbles. Another bird had eaten only a few grapes and flowering 

 dogwood berries. A third had made a respectable meal. Ten percent 

 of its food was animal matter and 90 percent vegetable. The animal 

 part consisted of 1 harvest spider (Phalangidce) , 1 centipede, 1 thou- 

 sand-legs [Julus), 1 ichneumon fly (Ichneumon unifasiculata) , 2 

 yellow- jackets {Vespa germanica), 1 grasshopper, and 3 katydids 

 (Cy7'tophyllus perspicidatus) . .The vegetable food was wild black 

 cherries, grapes, berries of flowering dogwood and sour gum, 2 

 chestnuts, 25 whole acorns (Quercus palustris and Q. velvtina), a few 

 alder catkins, seeds of jewel weed, and 500 seeds of tick-trefoil 

 (Meibomia nudiilora). Another turkey, also shot in December, had 

 eaten a ground beetle, an ichneumon fly, 2 wheel bugs, 10 yellow- 

 jackets, a meadow grasshopper, 75 red-legged grasshoppers, a few 

 sour-gum berries, some pine seeds (with a few pine needles, probably 

 taken accidentally), several acorns, a quarter of a cupful of wheat, 

 and a little corn. 



a Am. Field, vol. 55, p. 42, 1901. 



6 First Rep. Ent. Com., App. II, p. 46, 1878. 



c Fourth Rep. Ent. Com., p. 88, 1885. 



