38 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



Higb-bush cranberry (Vihurnum Buiicbberry (Conius canadensis). 



opujus). Cornel (Cornus panictilata). 



Mountain cranberry {Vnccinium SUky cornel (Conuis amonum). 



vitis-idwa). Pepperidge (Xyssa sylvatica). 



Snowberry (Syniplioricarpus sp.)- Mulberry {2Ion(s rubra). 



Feverwort {Triosteuni perfoJia- Bittersweet [Cclastrtis scandens). 



turn). Manzanita {Arctostaphylos sp.). 



Black buckleberry {Gaylmsacia Barberry (Ba-hcris vulgaris). 



resinosa). Virginia creeper {Parthenocissas 

 Black alder {Ilex verticiUata) . quinquefoUa) . 



Flowering dogwood (Cornus flor- 



ida ) . 



The seeds of most of these berries pass through the digestive tract 

 unharmed and are capable of germinating. Thus the grouse assists 

 in planting many fruiting trees and shrubs, the heavy seeds of wl.'ich 

 must l3e disseminated mainly through the agency of animals that feed 



on them. 



Food of the Young. 



The young of most birds are far more insectivorous than adults, a 

 statement that applies to gallinaceous birds, though to a less extent 

 than to passerines. More than 95 percent of the diet of eight grouse 

 chicks examined, none of which was more than a fourth grown, was 

 insects. Seven adults collected in the breeding season had consumed 

 only 30 percent of insects. Newly hatched chicks eat the largest 

 ]jroportion of insects. As they grow older they gradually become 

 more frugivorous and granivorous. Three chicks, only a day or 

 two old, collected by Prof. S. A. Forbes, at Waukegan, 111., June 9, 

 1876, proved to have been exclusively insectivorous. They had eaten 

 cutworms, grasshoppers, Lampyrid beetles, ants {T etramorium 

 ccespitron), parasitic wasps, buffalo tree hoppers, and spiders (Attidce 

 and Phalangidce). A grouse about a week out of the shell, collected 

 by F. H. King, had eaten a white grub, 7 spiders {Phalangidce) , 

 and 13 caterpillars." It should be noted, therefore, that the ruffed 

 grouse, though only slightly insectivorous when adult, as a chick 

 destroys great numbers of insects, and deserves much more credit 

 from farmers than it usually receives. 



THE SPRUCE GROTJSE. 



( Canachites canadensis. ) & 



The spruce, or Canada, grouse inhabits the transcontinental conif- 

 erous forests from the northern border of the United States, east of 



a Trans. Wis. Ag. Soc. vol. 24, pp. 472-47.3, 188G. 



6Tbe spruce grouse {Canachites canadensis) is separated into three geographic 

 forms, of which two occur within our territory; these are the common spruce 

 grouse (C. c. canace) of the northern border from Maine to Minnesota, and the 

 .-Maska spruce grouse {C. c. osgoodi) of Alaska and western Canad-i. 



