54 THE SPECIES^ITS TAXONOMY, RANGE, BIOLOGY, & ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 



Saskatchewan (and furiiierly over much of the area now within the states of Ohio, Indiana. 

 Illinois and Kentucky, which would have been included in the region under primitive con- 

 ditions) tracts of treeless grassland are found in the midst of good grouse cover and vice 

 versa. Many other minor exceptions also exist, such as the sand dunes of Michigan and the 

 alpine mountain tops of the Adirondacks and \^liite Mountains. 



Grouse have, in general, always been most plentiful within this portion of their range, but. 

 though the average is relatively high, some sections are more productive than others. Thus, 

 well watered areas are more productive than dry; moderate slopes are preferred to steep; and 

 cover containing an apjjreciable admixture of evergreens is better than pure hardwood. Areas 

 intensively occupied by man support relatively fewer grouse than those where the habitat has 

 been less altered. 



Beyond this grouse find their needs most adequately supplied in coverts comprising an 

 irregular pattern of tvpes and having a more or less open crown but considerable under- 

 growth. They prosper best in habitats associated with sub-climax forest types. The greatest 

 primitive populations were probably produced along the water courses of the region of mixed 

 coniferous and deciduous forest, about the swamps in the hardwood sections, and in portions 

 of the prairie border of the middle-west and the southern prairie provinces. Burns and wind- 

 slashes, however, also broke up the uniformity of the cover and produced highly favorable 

 conditions. Conversely, extensive tracts of uniform type seldom have been conducive to high 

 densities of population. Thus grouse abundance increased materially in the second growth 

 following settlement and lumbering, although, of course, they disappeared where land clear- 

 ing was intensive. Some of the most highly productive coverts today are found among the 

 hill farms of New England and southern New York, especially where many of the clearings 

 are beginning to revert to overgrown-land as a result of abandonment. 



Elsewhere grouse populations are more sparse and. in many sections, the distribution of 

 favorable cover more scattered. Through its southward extension in the Appalachian system, 

 its numbers are relatively low. While thev formerly may have been more abundant locally, 

 especially where Canadian conditions existed, the effects of lumbering, burning, land clearing 

 and grazing, through eliminating the evergreens, destroying the undergrowth, and drying u|i 

 the streams, have resulted in their now being relatively scarce. A recent rejiort* from Ken- 

 lucky, however, states that grouse are re-occupving manv areas following better coiitrdl of 

 burning. 



Throughout tiicir range in the western states, grouse iiave never been luinuMous. Reports 

 indicate that, on the Pacific Coast, they are most plentiful on Vancouver Island. The distri- 

 bution of the scattered birds in Utah and Nevada is verv irregular and changes cdtiliiuialK 

 although the general extent of their range remains the same. Here they are found cliicfiv 

 where aspen and willow groves occur in canyon bottoms at moderate elevations. In the 

 southern Rocky Mountain region the area occupied bv grouse lies as a band along the moun- 

 tain slopes, its lower level being roughly defined by the occurrence of evergreen timber, its 

 upper limits falling somewhat below timberline. In its former range in Colorado, this band 

 lay roughly between 6000 feet and oOOO feet. To the northward it gradually lowers until, in 

 the northern states and Canada, the valleys comjjrise the grouse range and more and more 

 of the mountains project above timber-line. Throughout this region, especially in northern 

 British Colum])ia. Yukon Territorv and Alaska, local areas unsuited to grouse (indicated onl\ 

 approximately on tiie map) are frequent. To tiie north, alpine conditions arc chiefly rcsi)on- 

 sible; to the south, arid intrusions of the Sonoran Zone in the river valleys are also involved. 



♦ Wolcorielil, S. W.. pcrnonal Irltrr tn the autlinrfl. April 2. 1942. 



