RUFFED GROUSE. 35 



Dr. John H. Brinton, of Jefferson Medical College, has known sev- 

 eral cases of glossitis (inflammation of the tongue) caused by eating 

 grouse that had fed on laurel," and Dr. N. Shoemaker has also known 

 *of serious illness from the same source.^ V. K. Chestnut, Department 

 specialist on poisonous plants, gave an extract made from laurel 

 leaves to a chicken, which he subsequently killed and fed to a cat. 

 The cat was seriously affected, but ultimately recovered. In Phila- 

 delphia in 1700 the public was alarmed over the possibilities of laurel 

 poisoning, and the sale of these birds was for a time forbidden. Dr. 

 B. H. Warren shot 10 birds when the ground was deeply covered with 

 snow, and found their crops stuffed with laurel buds.'' Not more 

 than half a dozen stomachs of the 208 examined by the Biological 

 Survey contained fragments of this plant, the explanation probably 

 being that only a few stomachs were collected in late winter, when 

 birds most resort to it. Four of the birds that contained laurel were 

 used for food, with no evident ill effect. One of these had eaten 14: 

 grams of laurel, nearly all leaves, with only a few buds. The leaves 

 had been clipped into bits as if by scissors. Investigation of this 

 habit of the grouse, known to be a common one, is much needed. The 

 maple is often selected for budding, and sometimes the spicebush. 

 Flowers are sometimes plucked by browsing grouse. Asters and red 

 clover have been identified in their food, and the green ovary of 

 bloodroot {Sanguinaria) was found in a bird's crop by Amos W. 

 Butler. 



The following plants also are in the list of browse of this bird: 



Heucbera {Heuchera americana). Meadow rue (ThaUctrum sp.). 



Chickweed (Alsinc pubera). Smilax {Smilaj:- glatica). 



Catnip (Xepeta cataria). Horsetail rush (Equisetutn sp.). 



Cinquefoil {PotcntlUa argentea). Azalea (Azalea sp.). 



Buttercup (Ranunculus hulhosa False goat's beard (AstUbe sp.). 



and R. acris). Aster (Aster sp.). 



Speedwell (Veronica officinalis). Cud weed (GnaphaJium purpu- 

 Saxifrage (Saxifraga sp.). reum). 



Live-forever (Seilum sp.). 



FRUIT. 



The ruffed grouse is preeminently a berry eater. Not only does it 

 consume more fruit than the bobwhite, l)ut it is our most f rugivorous 

 game bird. More than one-fourth of its j'early food — 28.32 percent — 

 consists of fruit, distributed as follows: 3.82 percent rose hips, 2.46 

 percent poison ivy and sumac, 3.01 percent grapes, and 10.03 percent 

 miscellaneous fruits. 



a Warren, Birds of Penn., p. 108, 1890. 

 6Nortb Am. INIed. Journ., I, pp. 321-322, 182G. 

 c Birds of Pennsylvania, p. 108, 1890. 



