30 GEOUSE AND WILD TUEKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



fermir-rnhrum) , which was unusually abundant in pastures where the 

 birds foraged. They had picked up also long-horned grasshoppers 

 {Xiphid'nun sp.) and a few black crickets. Crickets often swarm in 

 fields during fall, and offer tempting morsels to birds. The ruifed 

 grouse occasionally eats such caterpillars as cutworms, army worms, 

 cotton worms {Alabama argillacea)^ the red-humped apple worm 

 {ScMzura concinna), and the oak-leaf caterpillar {Symmerista alhi- 

 fi'ons). A number of observers, among them Doctors Fisher and 

 Weed, report that it feeds on oak caterpillars. 



The ruffed grouse, like the bobwhite, prefers beetles to any other 

 insects. It takes almost as many of them as of all other kinds put 

 together, including even such small ones as the clover weevil {Sitones 

 hisjnduhis). It likes also the injurious leaf-eating beetles {Chryso- 

 melidce), destroying even the notorious potato beetle {Leftinotarsa 

 decemlineata) . It eats the pale-striped flea beetle (Systena blaiida), 

 as well as many other leaf beetles, including Systena hudsonias. 

 Disonycha caroliniana, Chatocnema sp., Galerucella sagittarice^ and 

 the grapevine pest, Adoxus vitis. By scratching, the grouse unearths 

 many pests not found by other birds, notably beetle larvae, click 

 beetles, and May beetles, including Larhnosterna liirsiita. It also 

 consumes another injurious beetle, Dkhelonycha sp., closely related to 

 the May beetles and resembling them in habits and appearance. It 

 scratches up many ground beetles belonging to Pterosfiehvs, A7iiso- 

 daatylus. Harpalus, and other genera. Beetles of other families 

 also— fireflies {Lampyridce)^ metallic wood borers {Buprestidce)^ and 

 Calitys scaira (Trogostklo') — are in the food list. 



The grouse feeds also on such miscellaneous insects as flies, bugs, 

 ants, and such other Hymenoptera as sawflies and ichneumon flies. 

 A large proportion of the flies are slow-flying species, like crane flies, 

 which are preyed upon by many other kinds of birds. Bugs, how- 

 ever, are much more often destroyed by bobwhite and the ruffed 

 grouse than by other birds. The ruffed grouse has been known to 

 prey on the chinch bug, which at times is the most injurious insect 

 in our country, and seldom destroyed by any except gallinaceous 

 birds. Farmers who permit market hunters to rob them of their 

 game should remember this fact. The grouse picks up also many 

 other bugs, among them predaceous species like the ambush bug 

 (Phymata sp.) and the assassin bug {Reduviid(e). They eat also 

 homopterous insects, including leaf hoppers {Jassidm) and buffalo 

 tree hoppers {Membracidoi). 



Like many other birds, the ruffed grouse eats ants, frequently 

 including such large species as Camponotus pennsylvanicus. Among 

 small ants may be mentioned the pavement ant {TetmmoHurth 



