758 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



upon insects, grasshoppers forming a prominent part. Cereals, 

 grass, and weed seed are eaten. In the fall, when buckwheat 

 is ripening in September, their favorite feeding ground is a 

 buckwheat patch. The flocks collected at this season remain together, 

 except as they are killed, until mating time next spring. Flocks con- 

 tain from ten to forty birds. 



XXIII. FAMILY PHASIANIDJE. PHEASANTS, ETC. 



a 1 . Head and neck naked; forehead with conspicuous appendage. 



MELEAGRIS. 65 



SUBFAMILY MELEAGKIN^E. TUBKEYS. 

 65. GKNUS MELEAGRIS 



*123. (310). Meleagris gallopavo LINN. 



Wild Turkey. 



Breast of male, with a tuft of long, coarse, hair-like black bristles; 

 tail, bright umber, or dull ferruginous-brown, narrowly barred with 

 black, and crossed near the end with a broad subterminal band of 

 black; spurs, moderately developed. Female much smaller and duller- 

 colored than the male; tip of tail and all of the upper tail coverts, 

 dark chestnut; prevailing hue of metallic reflections, coppery. 



Length, 48.00-50.00; extent, 60.00; wing, 21.00; tail, 18.50; weight, 

 16 to 40 Ibs. Female measurements, smaller in proportion; weight, 

 about 12 Ibs. (Eidgway). 



RANGE. Eastern United States, north to southern Canada, for- 

 merly to Maine; south to Florida and middle Texas; west to the edge 

 of the Great Plains. (Bendire.) 



Nest, on ground, lined with dead leaves and grass. Eggs, 10-14; 

 creamy-white to creamy-buff, spotted and dotted with different shades 

 of brown; 2.55 by 1.79. 



Resident. Breeds. Formerly occurred in numbers throughout the 

 State; now, in most places, extinct. My father tells me of turkey 

 hunts in Franklin and Jefferson counties; of having killed them 

 within the present limits of the present town of Brookville, and of 

 trapping them in rail or log pens, some sixty or seventy years ago. 

 The turkey pens had holes dug in the ground under one side large 

 enough to admit the turkeys. A trail of corn led down into the hole, 

 and inside the pen was* plenty of corn. The birds followed the line of 

 shelled corn, and suddenly found themselves inside the pen. They 

 nevermore thought of looking down for the way by which they came, 



