FOOD OF WEST VIKGIMA BIEDS 



Wild Turkey. It is the Game Bird par excellence. In some places 

 in West Virginia flocks of considerable size may yet be found, and in 

 a few localities it is really quite common. However, in most places it 

 is approaching extinction, and, if it is not carefully protected in the 

 coming years, all will be gone from the entire State. In some places 

 the Wild Turkey is being propagated artificially with considerable suc- 

 cess, and i- other places their numbers are being greatly augmented 

 by setting aside forest reservations and making game preserves, in estab- 

 lishing a closed season for this species and in ridding the country of their 

 natural enemies. Forest fires do much to deplete the number of Wild 

 Turkeys, since their eggs are often destroyed in this way. The food 

 of the Wild Turkey is much the same as that of the domesticated species 

 and consists in large measure of grasshoppers, cicada and other large 

 insects and of grain gathered up in cut-over harvest fields, but the chief 

 economic value of this bird consists in the supply of excellent food 

 which it furnishes the hunter. 



Photo by Charles O. Handley 

 Male Flicker near nest. 



