48 GKOUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



of two birds collected at Siimmitville, Colo., in January, 1891, at an 

 altitude of 13,000 feet, were found to contain bud twigs from one- 

 third to one-half inch long, but the kind of bush from which they 

 came could not be determined. Doctor Coues, quoting T. M. Trippe, 

 states that the food of this bird is insects, leguminous flowers, and 

 the buds and leaves of pines and firs." According to Major Bendire, 

 the flowers and leaves of marsh marigold {Caltha leftosepala) and 

 the leaf buds and catkins of the dwarf birch {Betula glandidosa) are 

 eaten.'' Dr. A. K. Fisher examined the stomachs of two downy 

 chicks collected on Mount Rainier, Washington, and found beetles 

 and flowers of heather (Cassiope mertensiana) and those of a small 



blueberry. 



THE WIIiD TURKEY. 



{Meleagris gallopavo.) c 



The wild turkey, our biggest game bird, was formerly abundant 

 over a wide area. It has been exterminated throughout much of its 

 former range, and unless radical measures are taken it will become 

 extinct in a few years. In early colonial days it was numerous in 

 Massachusetts, coming about the houses of the settlers in large 

 flocks. It is now totally extinct in New England. It is hard to 

 realize that at the beginning of the nineteenth century turkeys were 

 so abundant that they sold for C cents apiece, though the largest 

 ones, weighing from 25 to 30 pounds, sometimes brought a quarter of 

 a dollar. A big wild turkey nowadays would not long go begging 

 at $5. It is their value as food that has made it worth while to 

 hunt turkeys to the very point of extermination. So-called sports- 

 men go out in the late summer ostensibly to shoot squirrels, but really 

 to pot turkeys on the roost. Another practice is to lie in ambush and 

 lure the game by imitating the call note of the hen in spring. The 

 writer has personal knowledge of such methods of hunting in Vir- 

 ginia and Maryland, and they are largely responsible for the exter- 

 mination now imminent. Trapping turkeys in pens — a very simple 

 matter — has also accelerated the destruction of the species. 



William Brewster found the turkey breeding in North Carolina 

 among the conifers at 5,000 feet altitude, and also in the hardwoods 

 at low altitudes. Edward A. Preble, of the Biological Survey, dis- 



a Birds of the Northwest, p. 427, 1874. 



6 Life Hist. N. A. Birds, [I], pp. 85-86, 1892. 



c The typical Meleagris gallopavo is restricted to Mexico ; but four geographic 

 races have been recognized within the United States. These are the wild tur- 

 key of the Eastern States and the Mississippi Valley {Meleagris gallopavo sil- 

 vestris) ; the Florida turkey {M. g. oseeola) ; the Rio Grande turkey (M. g. 

 intermedia) ; and the Merriam turkey of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and 

 the table-land of northern Mexico {M. g. merriami). 



