18 



THE RUFFED GROUSE IN THE MARCH OF TIME 



about the same time. Shorter open seasons were firmly established and made efiFective 

 through proper protection, backed up by hunter cooperation. Few further changes have 

 been made since, except to vary the length of the closed season, as in 1928-29 in New York 

 State, when no open season at all was permitted. 



While the protection thus granted certainly helped, it did not solve the problem of periodic 

 disappearances. Interested sportsmen, therefore, tried other methods. Grouse were imported 

 and released on Staten Island (N. Y.) about 1880. to give the few birds left there the 

 added impetus of numbers. Outram Bangs reported a small shipment of birds from north- 

 ern New Hampshire to have been liberated by him near Wareham, Massachusetts, in the lat- 

 ter 80's*''. Bureau of Biological Survey records indicate a shipment of 56 Canadian birds was 



TABLE 2. RECORDS AND RESULTS OF GROUSE LIBERATIONS 

 KNOWN TO THE INVESTIGATION 



