WILD TURKEY. 51 
One turkey, collected December 23, 1890, in North Carolina, had 
eaten half a pint of do^jwood berries. Its crop contained also a few 
pine needles. Four Florida wild turkeys also were examined. Nearly 
100 percent of their food was ve<!:etal)le. The animal matter was found 
in two birds and consisted of the useful predaceous ground beetle 
{Scariten siihten'aiwHs) and the injurious 12-spotted cucumber 
beetle {Diahvotica 12- punctata) ; also caterpillars {ILtdena turhti- 
lenta)^ grasshoppers (Melanoplus arhoreits and Amilia sp.), 2 dragon 
flies {Lihellula sp.), and 1 centipede. This is the only record of the 
first-mentioned grasshopper's occurrence in Florida. A third turkey 
had eaten half a pint of long-leafed pine seeds. Many of these seeds 
were germinating, and some of them had cotyledons more than an 
inch long. The Florida bobwhite also is very fond of these pine 
seeds. The same bird had eaten three thimblefuls of grass seed 
{Panicum mimmmn), 12 spicebush berries {Benzoin hcnzoln), 20 
berries of the wax myrtle {Myrica cerifera)^ 2 live-oak acorns {Quer- 
cus virginiana) , and 15 acorns of the Spanish oak {Quercus digitata). 
Another turkey had taken 25 tubers of the ground nut {Apios 
apios) — some of them exceeding an inch in length — and the berries 
of false Solomon's seal {Polygonatum sp.), southern tupelo, and wax 
myrtle. Half a pint of the fruiting panicles of a grass {Muhlen- 
hergia sp.) was taken from the crop of a New Mexican turkey shot 
in November in the Manzano Mountains. It had eaten also grass 
blades, seeds of cheat, pinon nuts, and seeds of other pines. 
Although grain was found in only one stomach, the w^riter observed 
turkeys on the Roanoke bottoms in December, 1903, feeding on corn 
after the crop had been harvested. During November and Decem- 
ber half of the food of the turkey is fruit. The kinds most frequently 
eaten include, besides those already mentioned, myrtle holly {Oreo- 
phila myrtifolia)^ mulberries, wild strawberries, blackberries, cedar 
berries, and holly berries. On San Francisco Mountain, Arizona, Dr. 
C. Hart Merriam found turkeys in August feeding on Avild goose- 
berries. A month later, at the same locality, he found them living on 
pinon nuts.« In Arizona E. A. (xoldman found a flock of 150 young 
and old turkeys that roosted in one place. The gobblers were at this 
time in a separate flock. These birds were feeding on nuts of the 
pinon {Pinus edidis), a staple Indian food of the West. They ate 
also juniper berries {Juniperus utahensis)^' On the upper Gila 
River, New Mexico, in November, 1873, H. W. Henshaw found turkeys 
very numerous and feeding almost exclusively upon grass seeds 
and grasshoppers, the crops of many birds being fairly cranuned with 
the former. Major Bendire says that the Florida turkey feeds on 
o N. A. Fauna, No. 3, p. 89, 1890. 
6 Auk, vol. 19, p. 123, 127, 1902. 
