TURKEYS: MERRIAM TURKEY 
235 
scratched over like a barnyard and narrow trails made entirely by 
Turkeys were common along the hillsides. In a few hours’ tramp along 
the crest of the range I saw five Turkeys and in the evening and morning 
an old fellow gobbled from the spruce-covered slope opposite our night’s 
camp. A few distant answers were heard. Loads of Turkeys have 
been hauled out of here to market in past years, but if the market hunt¬ 
ing can be stopped there is a fair chance of the birds holding their own. 
The country is rough and not many hunters come in” (MS). 
During January, 1913, Mr. Ligon found Merriam Turkeys abundant 
on a high divide north of Haut Creek in the Black Range, Socorro 
County, at about 7,500 feet. One of the flocks contained about fifty 
birds. As he reported, “they are distributed quite commonly over the 
Gila Reserve but begin gobbling in this district about March 25. The 
greatest enemies to the nests are skunks and bobcats—to the old birds, 
the Golden Eagle. Acorns while they last are their favorite food, but 
these are usually soon gathered up. In the middle of October, 1915, in 
Mineral Canyon near Chloride, Mr. Ligon found the ground in the bed 
of the canyon, under the tall oaks, “literally covered with acorns” and 
thickly marked with tracks. When pinyon nuts are plentiful they form 
the principal food of the Turkeys from September until June. Where 
these can not be had during winter they feed on juniper berries” (MS). 
To get the pinyon nuts and juniper berries in fall and to escape the 
winter snows they go down the mountains to the nut pine and juniper 
mesas, where we were told they have been wantonly killed. At Fort 
Wingate during six years when there had been no crop of pine nuts the 
birds had been very scarce, but during the seasons of plenty they are said 
to be fairly common about the timbered mountains south of the Fort. 
The Merriam Turkeys in the Chuska Mountains were found feeding 
mainly on the seeds of wild chess and other grasses, manzanita berries, 
and rose haws. Two shot by Mr. Bailey in the canyon on Mount Taylor 
had eaten quite an assortment of foods including acorns, wild oats, seeds 
of wild parsnip, serviceberry, and other plants, leaves of vetch, grass¬ 
hoppers, beetles, ants, caterpillars and other insects and gravel. One 
collected in the Manzano Mountains had eaten among other things half 
a pint of seeds of drop-seed grass, some brome-grass seeds, and grass 
blades. A specimen taken in the Pecos Mountains contained, besides 
grasshoppers and crickets, mariposa lily buds, and strawberries. 
“At times, and particularly in years when there are few or no nuts,” 
Mr. Charles Springer of Cimarron writes, “the principal food of the 
Merriam Turkey is wild rye, which is plentiful in the canyons and draws 
in our mountains and foothills. On the Suree I have often seen wild 
Turkeys eating the short blades of Kentucky blue grass which grows 
wild along the canyon near the stream and remains green all winter. 
One of the most important winter foods of the Merriam Turkey is the 
