WILD TURKEY. 49 
covered a turkey's nest, in June, 181);i, in Somerset County, Pa., which 
contained 14 e<r^s. William Lloyd states that the Texas turkey 
breeds twice a year. lie found a nest. May 2J>, containin<r ^ c<r^s. 
The chicks, like those of the tame turkey, are very delicate, and are 
especially sensitive to wet. Au(lul)()n says that dufin<r wet weather 
they are fed by their mothers with the buds of spice bush, much as 
human youn«:sters are dosed with (piinine." When the chicks are 
'2 weeks old they fly up and roost on low branches with their 
mother. At this ngo they have weathered most of their early perils. 
During the last of December, 11)02, along 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 Ix^ginning 
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 IS 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 Avere 
turkey blinds, some made of young pine trees and others, more elab- 
orate, of logs. Most of the turkeys killed here 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 larva% 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 were collected during February, March, July, 
September, November, and December. They contained 15.57 percent 
o Ornith. Biog., vol. 1, p. 7, 1831. 
