324 BULLETIN" 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1928) says the nest is " on the ground 

 in tall thick weeds or briers, lined with grass, weeds, and leaves." 



O. W. Howard (1900) found a nest in the Huachuca Mountains in 

 Arizona, which he describes as follows : 



The nest was in the bed of the canon at the base of the hill, in a natural 

 depression in the soft earth at the side of a rock, and just under a large white 

 oak tree. The nest had a lining of leaves and small twigs, with a few feathers 

 from the old bird scattered about. The nest was about a mile above the place 

 where I had seen the first bird and at about 7,000 feet elevation. Strange to 

 say. the nest was within a stone*s throw and in plain sight from a well-traveled 

 trail. 



Eggs. — The eggs are indistinguishable from those of other wild 

 turkeys. The measurements of 16 eggs average 65.8 by 47.3 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 70.5 by 49, 

 61.7 by 46.7, and 64.5 by 46 millimeters. 



Food. — Mrs. Bailey (1928) lists the food of this turkey as follows: 



In winter pinyon nuts, acorns, and juniper berries ; in summer flower buds, 

 grass and other seeds, wild oats, wild strawberries, manzanita berries, rose 

 haws, fruit of wild mulberry and prickly pear, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, 

 caterpillars, ants, and other insects. In New Mexico " the crop of a Merriam 

 Turkey killed February 10 on Haut Creek contained 76 juniper berries, 25 

 pinyon nuts, 6 acorns, 30 soft worms an inch long, grass blades and some rock. 

 The crop of a gobbler, weighing about 30 pounds and shot March 25 out of a 

 flock of 50 in the Black Mountains, contained 30 pinyon nuts and 215 juniper 

 berries" (Ligou). The stomach of a specimen collected near the southern end 

 of the range contained fully a half pint of the fruiting panicles of grass 

 (Muhlen'bcrgia) , a few seeds of Bromus, and some grass blades comprising 55 

 per cent; pinyon pine and other pine seeds, 45 per cent. In some localities 

 considerate ranchmen plant small patches of oats for turkey food (Ligon). 



Mrs. Bailey quotes Charles Springer as saying : 



At times, and particularly in years when there are few or no nuts, the prin- 

 cipal food of the Merriam Turkey is wild rye, which is plentiful in the canyons 

 and draws in our mountains and foothills. On the Suree I have often seen wild 

 Turkeys eating the short blades of Kentucky blue grass which grows wild along 

 the canyon near the stream and remains green all winter. One of the most 

 important winter foods of the Merriam Turkey is the red kinicklnick berry 

 which grows on the high ridges and plateaus in our mountains. When acorns, 

 pinyon, and pine nuts, and other foods may be buried deep under snow, the Tur- 

 keys may find kinickiuick berries on the high ridges and high places from which 

 the snow blows off. Mason Chase tells about the wild Turkeys hunting out, or 

 at least finding and appropriating, caches of nuts made by rodents. He says 

 this occurred during a time when deep snow covered up all the Turkey's food 

 except the buds of shrubs. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam (1890) found it on San Francisco Mountain, 

 Ariz., feeding on wild gooseberries in the balsam belt in August and 

 on pinyon nuts in the cedar belt in September. Major Bendire 

 (1892) says that it also eats the fruits of the giant cactus, " which is 

 alike a favorite article of food with man, bird and beast." 



