50 GROUSE AND WILD TUKKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



of animal matter and 84.43 percent of vegetable matter. The animal 

 food consisted of insects — 15.15 percent — and miscellaneous inverte- 

 brates, such as spiders, snails, and myriapods — 0.42 percent. Grass- 

 hoppers furnished 13.92 percent, and beetles, flies, caterpillars, and 

 other insects 1.23 percent. 



The 84.43 percent of the bird's vegetable food was distributed as 

 follows: ' Browse,' 24.80 percent; fruit, 32.98 percent; mast, 4.60 per- 

 cent; other seeds, 20.12 percent; miscellaneous vegetable matter, 1.93 

 percent. 



The wild turkey is very fond of grasshoppers and crickets. Wil- 

 liam Hugh Kobarts has observed a flock of a hundred busily catching 

 grasshoppers." Vernon Bailey, of the Biological Survey, killed a 

 turkey at Corpus Christi, Tex., in May, 1900, that had eaten a large 

 number of grasshoppers and a sphinx moth. During the ^Tebraska 

 invasion of Rocky Mountain locusts. Professor Aughey examined the 

 contents of six- wild turkey stomachs and crops collected during 

 August and September. Every bird had eaten locusts, in all amount- 

 ing to 259." The wild turkey has been known also to feed on the 

 cotton worm" (Alabama argillacea), the leaf hoppers, and the leaf- 

 eating beetles {Ghrysomela suturalis). The grasshopper (Arnilia 

 sp.) and the thousand-legs (Julus) form part of the turkey's bill of 

 fare. Tadpoles and small lizards also are included. 



Besides the bird shot on the Roanoke, already mentioned, the stom- 

 achs and crops of four other Virginia turkeys have been examined by 

 the Biological Survey. One of these contained only small quartz 

 pebbles. Another bird had eaten only a few grapes and flowering 

 dogwood berries. A third had made a respectable meal. Ten percent 

 of its food was animal matter and 90 percent vegetable. Tljie animal 

 part consisted of 1 harvest spider (Phalangidce) ,1 centipede, 1 thou- 

 sand-legs (Julus) , 1 ichneumon fly (Ichneumon unifasiculata) , 2 

 yellow-jackets (Vespa- germanica) , 1 grasshopper, and 4; katydids 

 (Cyrtophyllus perspiculatus) . The vegetable food was wild black 

 cherries, grapes, berries of flowering dogwood and sour gum, 2 

 chestnuts, 25 whole acorns (Quercus palu^tris and Q. velutina), a few 

 alder catkins, seeds of jewel weed, and 500 seeds of tick-trefoil 

 (Meibom,ia nudiflora). Another turkey, also shot in December, had 

 eaten a ground beetle, an ichneumon fly, 2 wheel bugs, 10 yellow- 

 jackets, a meadow grasshopper, 75 red-legged grasshoppers, a few 

 sour-gum berries, some pine seeds (with a few pine needles, probably 

 taken accidentally), several acorns, a quarter of a cupful of wheat, 

 and a little corn. 



» Am. Field, vol. 55, p. 42, 1901. 



i First Rep. Ent Com., App. II, p. 46, 1878. 



c Fourth Rep. Ent. Com., p. 88, 1885. 



