The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1906-03-08
WILD TURKEYS GROWING
The Birds, II Let Alone Would Check
Increase Of Noxious Weeds

tHCTeaSe OF NONiouS WcSuo
and Insects.
'"They are the hardest things In the
line of a game bird to bring down.
= ''They can run like a deer and duck
out of sight just like a jack rabbit.
Il ought to know, because I've chased
them for days at a time, but I did
get as close to a real live turkey be-
FORE"
The speaker, says the Boston Her
aid, was a visitor at the Spontaneous
Show last night; who went into costa
cies over the wild turkeys, which form
a small portion of Homer Davenport's
bird exhibit. In a few minutes a large
number of people had the turkey fever
and every one wanted to know all
about them.
1t is hard to realize that at the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century wild
turkeys were so abundant that they
sold for six cents apiece, although the
Larger ones, Weighing from twenty-five
to thirty pounds, sometimes brought a
quarter Of a dollar. A big wild tur-
key nowadays would not long go beg
ging at SIS.
1t is their value as food that has
made 1t worth while to hunt turkeys to
the very point of determination. So
called sportsmen go out In the late
summer, ostensibly to shoot squirrels,
but really to pot turkeys on the roost.
A nnfhor n afinn. fC "a Ito In nhlrch
and to lure the game by initiating the
call note Of the hen in spring. Trap
ping turkeys In pens, a very simple
matter, has also accelerated the de-
struction of the species.
The wild turkey insects,
pests, and seeds Of weeds, but now is
nowhere abundant enough to have
much effect on agriculture. The bio
logical survey has examined in all six
teen stomachs of wild turkeys. These
were collected during February, March,
July, September, November and De-
cember. These stomachs contained
1857 percent of animal matter and
84.43 percent of vegetable matter.
The animal matter consisted Of spid-
ers, snails, myriapedes, grasshoppers,
beetles, flies, caterpillars and other in
sects. The wild turkey is very fond of
grasshoppers and crickets. During in
Sasion of Rocky Mountain locusts Prof.
Anghey examined the contents of the
stomachs and crops Of six wild turkeys
and every one was found to have eaten
locusts. The wild turkey has been
known also to feed on the cottonworm.
the le%afhoppers and the leaf eating
beetles.
One turkey was found to have made
a very respectable meal. Ten percent
pf its food was animal matter and 80
percent vegetable. The animal part
consisted of n harvest spider, n
centipede, one ichneumon fly, n
Erasshopper and three katydids. The
vegetable food was wild black cherries,
grapes, berries of towering dogwood
and sour gum, two chestnuts, twenty
five whole acorns, a few alder catkins,
seeds Of jewel weed and 500 seeds Of
tick trefoil.
Another turkey, also shot in Deem
Der, had eaten a ground beetle, an
ichneumon fly, two wheel bugs, ten
yellow Jackets, a meadow grasshopper,
twenty-five r~ed-legged grasshoppefs, q
lew our gum berries. some pine seeds
with a few pine needles, probably TAX
bn accidentally, several acorns, a
quarter of a cupful Of wheat and a lit
lie corn. 1t will thus be seen hat the
wild turkey has a wonderful digestive
apparatus, as 1t car eat most any,
thing. 1t is only in comparatively re-
cent times, however, that the economic
ralue of turkeys as insect destroyers
has been recognized.
The results of recent Investigations
fhould lead to a wider knowledge of
The essential part these birds play in
checking the increase of noxious weeds
Ind insects and the Importance of pre-
CRYING the turkeys and Of increasing
their numbers.