RUFFED GROUSE. 33 



grouse at dusk balancing on the ends of birch branches and snipping 

 off buds. As with the pophir, both leaf buds and flower buds are 

 taken. A grouse shot in Quebec December 18, 189(), had filled its 

 crop with 200 catkins of the canoe birch. As a rule birds appear to 

 prefer the male to the female flowers. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway 

 are authority for the statement that in Maine the buds of black 

 birch are so freely eaten that they impart to the bird's flesh a dis- 

 tinctive and agreeable flavor. The ruffed grouse feeds also on the 

 bucls and leaves of different species of willow, as Major Bendire" 

 and other authors have reported. A bird shot on Roseau River, 

 Minnesota, October 20, 1896, had eaten 20 willow flowers. In bud- 

 ding, the grouse often clips from a fourth to half an inch of a twig 

 which bears two or three buds. 



In addition to the buds and leaves of willoAv, birch, and poplar, 

 brow^se from miscellaneous plants provides the bird with 27.91 per- 

 cent of its food. Such relatives of the willow as the alder, hazel, 

 beech, ironwood, and hornbeam furnish a part of the above. Apple 

 trees on outlying parts of farms are favorite sources of supply. This 

 fact, noted by many observers and confirmed by the present investiga- 

 tion, has sfiven rise to considerable discussion as to whether or not the 

 trees are seriously injured by the budding. Dr. Clarence M. Weed 

 says : ^ 



The ruffed grouse, however, is capable of iufiicting real damage by a too 

 close pruning of buds, and ctises are known where apple orchards located near 

 woods have been rendered useless by them. 



Mr. C. J. Maynard states that he took 180 apple buds from one 

 crop, and says that in Massachusetts at one time a bounty of 25 cents 

 was offered by certain towns for the birds' heads.^ Miss M. E. 

 Paine, of Royalston, Mass., in a letter to the writer describes her 

 observations on the budding of apple trees by grouse as follows: 



The ruffed grouse eats the buds of apple trees, but it is a help rather than a 

 damage. Last year a wild apple tree on top of a hill, between pasture and 

 mowing, was almost entirely budded. I thought entirely at first, but the ter- 

 minal buds were almost always left uninjured, also many minute buds on each 

 limb. 'IMie result was the tei-minal buds were inished out and grew rapidly and 

 strongly. The tree blossomed abundantly and the fruit hung in clusters toward 

 the ends of the branches. The tree is of medium size and the branches droop 

 to the ground. In the fall the golden apples occupied fully as nuich room as the 

 green leaves, and as one looked at the tree a few rods away — a perfect pic- 

 ture, barrels of apples on it, all nearly perfect and fair, .iust the result of a 

 vigorous trimming. This year it was not so badly budded — less snow in 

 winter. Many small buds farther back in the branches have started again this 



a Life Hist, N. A. Birds, [I], p. 6G, 1892. 



^ Birds in Their Relation to Man, p. 40, 1903. 



c Birds of Eastern N. A., p. '.i'y.i. 1881. 



