WILD TURKEY. 49 



covered a turkey's nest, in June, 1893, in Somerset County, Pa., which 

 contained 14 eggs. William Lloyd states that the Texas turkey 

 breeds twice a year. He found a nest. May 29, containing 8 eggs. 

 The chicks, like those of the tame turkey, are very delicate, and are 

 especially sensitive to wet. Audubon says that during wet weather 

 they are fed by their mothers with the buds of spice bush, much as 

 human youngsters are dosed with quinine." When the chicks are 

 2 weeks old they fly up and roost on low branches with their 

 mother. At this age they have weathered most of their early perils. 

 During the last of December, 1902, aJong the Roanoke River, near 

 the North Carolina line, the writer found turkeys in typical turkey 

 country. Few of the plantations here are under a thousand acres, 

 and many include three or four thousand. Along the river are low- 

 lands, often flooded during high water. Several hundred yards far- 

 ther back is a bluff, the old river terrace, which marks the beginning 

 of the uplands. A part of this bluff, half a mile long by an eighth of 

 a mile wide, consists of a slate outcrop, much elevated above the rest 

 and varying from 50 to 150 feet above the river. It is locally known 

 as ' the mountain,' and is heavily forested with pine and oak. The 

 turkeys were found on the backbone of the ' mountain,' among white 

 oak trees, where fresh droppings and places where the birds had 

 scratched in the dry oak leaves to the depth of 2 or 3 inches were 

 visible. So recently had the birds been there that the humus had 

 not dried. The scratching places were from 15 to 18 inches in diam- 

 eter and circular in shape. In the growth of white oaks there were 

 fully fifty scratching holes, as many as five being found within one 

 square rod, where the birds had made diligent search for acorns. A 

 turkey dog was sent ahead and soon flushed a bird, which came flying 

 by, looking like a giant ruffed grouse. All through the woods were 

 turkey blinds, some made of young pine trees and others, more elab- 

 orate, of logs. Most of the turkeys killed tere are shot, by calling 

 them up to these blinds. In a patch of rank broomsedge and briers a 

 20-pound gobbler sprang into the air and was shot while making off in 

 clumsy fashion. It had not had time to eat much, and the stomach 

 and crop contained seven dipterous larvae, the remains of white-oak 

 acorns, and about a hundred 'flowering dogwood berries. On the 15th 

 of June, 1903, two broods of young about the size of game hens were 

 seen. 



FOOD HABITS. 



The Biological Survey has examined, in all, 16 stomachs and crops 

 of wild turkeys. These Avere collected during February, March, July, 

 September, November, and December. They contained 15.57 percent 



o Ornith. Biog., vol. 1, p. 7, 1831. 



