PREFACE 



'To know the grouse is to love it 

 And loving it. to wish it uell." 



In a scientific report such as this, there is little room for personalities or individual feel- 

 ings. Only in the preface can one give expression to thoughts quite unscientific but unde- 

 niably human. 



When those we love are in trouble we do our best to help. So it is wilii tiic ruffed grouse. 

 Two and a quarter centuries have passed since the first law protecting grouse was enacted 

 in the Colony of New York. Since then a million men. gun in hand, heart in the highlands 

 and the swish of leaves in their faces, have roamed woods roads and forest glades, hunting 

 partridge and finding zest in life. 



That all who know the grouse come to have an affection for this unpredictable thunder- 

 bolt of the uplands, is axiomatic. Its rolling drum and roaring flush add a personality to the 

 woods which nothing can replace. Its uncanny skill in foiling the sportsman has endeared 

 it to all who prize a worthy opponent. 



The partridge asks no favors. It has never been on relief, as with pheasants and quail in a 

 northern winter. Yet. that it. loo. has trouble was realized years ago. The mysterious way 

 in which, from abundance it suddenlv becomes scarce, then gradually grows plentiful again, 

 has long caused genuine concern. In fact, these violent periodic fluctuations in grouse pop- 

 ulation have made many fear for the future of this remarkable bird. 



More than a few endeavored to do something about it: Hodge. Torrey. Stoddart. Foriiush. 

 Walcott, Burnhani. Allen and a host of others: thus the honor roll runs. 



As far back as 1907 the New York State Conservation Department realized the need for 

 an investigation of these so-called epidemics. Accordingly, it employed E. Seymour Wood- 

 ruff to send out questionnaires to obtain the opinion of sportsmen and game protectors 

 throughout the State as to the cause. A. M. Stoddart. Rod and Gun editor of the New York 

 Sun, made a similar study for the Department covering the 1917 scarcity. For over ten 

 years it cooperated with Professor A. A. Allen of Cornell University by sending him, through 

 its game protectors, the viscera of grouse from all over the State to facilitate his study of 

 grouse diseases and by encouraging his pioneer researches into the artificial raising of this 

 species. 



Though plent) had always followed scarcity, by 1928 grouse were at such a low ebb in 

 New York that a closed season was invoked and retained through 1929. In August of that 

 year, a group of earnest, worried sportsmen, led by George Lawyer of \^'atertown. met with 

 Conservation Commissioner Alexander MacDonald to see what might be done to save the 

 best shot-dodger of the woods. Out of the conference came the decision of the Conserva- 



