02 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 
white-oak acorns, chinquaj^ins, chestnuts, pecan nuts, bhuk persim- 
mons, fruit of prickly pear, le<2:uminous seeds, all cultivated <j:rains, 
and tender tops of plants." -Wild turkeys feed also on mountain rice 
{Oryz(>])sis prhujlei) , mesquite beans, sedgfe, poa grass, and composite 
flowers. 
Florence Merriani Hailev. in Avritin<j: of the wild turkey in New 
Mexico, says : ^ 
Mr. Vilas, a cattleman of the country, told us that in the fall they j;o down 
to the nut pino and juniiun* mesas in the (ilorieta rejjjion and, j^atherinj? at the 
few sprinj^s that furnish drinkinjj: places, are shot hy wajjon loads hy the Mexi- 
cans. The only specimen we obtained was taken .Tuly 27, at over 11,(KH) feet. 
Its crop and j;izzard held mainly ^grasshoppers and crickets, hut also jrrass schhI, 
mariposa lily buds, and strawberries, while its gizzard contained in addition 
a few beetles. 
The wild turkey consumes both insect pests and seeds of weeds, but 
now is nowhere abundant enough to have much effect on agricidture. 
The domestic turkey's habit of hunting grasshoppers and of ' worm- 
ing ' tobacco shoAvs what might be expected from the wild species 
were it sufficiently numerous. 
a Life Hist. N. A. Birds. [II, p. 114, 1892. 
i'Auk, vol. 21, J). ;ir>2, 11)04. 
