GROUSE BOUNTIES 11 



more than its share of attention as one of the major causes. 



Thus ended, by popular demand, a most colorful and profitable period. Almost immedi- 

 ately, another era began, for the invention of the automobile and the airplane so lengthened 

 man's legs as to make most back country but a few short steps from the firesides of an army 

 of hunters that grew phenomenally with the years. 



GROUSE BOUNTIES 



To some it is a new thought that game can become so abundant in favorable habitats as to 

 be inimical to man's interests. The deer, in many parts of its range, is a striking example. 

 Among the most paradoxical developments in all grouse history was its classification as 

 "vermin". 



Beginning about the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of apple orchards 

 in New England, many of which were in close proximity to grouse coverts, offered the birds 

 a new and highly acceptable source of winter food — the apple buds. So thoroughly did these 

 natural pruners set to work, that bounties of 25 cents each were placed on their heads in cer- 

 tain Massachusetts townships^''. 



But, for those prophets who painted the grouse as a rapidly diminishing species, New 

 Hampshire has reserved the crowning incongruity". In the year ending June 30. 1921- claims 

 of grouse damage primarily to apple orchards in this State were paid totaling some $26,800.72, 

 a sum nearly one-quarter of the entire revenue received from the combined hunting and trap- 

 ping licenses*. 



The changing emphasis on grouse hunting as sport, and the waning importance of the 

 apple industry, led to the abolition of bounties but not of damage. Within the past ten years, 

 the State of Massachusetts has paid such claims on orchards budded by grouse. In other New 

 England states, and in New York as well, letters still find their way to game authorities during 

 periods of grouse abundance, asking that something be done about it. 



RECOGNITION OF PERIODS OF SCARCITY 



Bartram, in one of his several letters to Edwards"", written in 1754. gives the first account 

 of local grouse scarcity, when he says, "They have been common in Pennsylvania, but now 

 most of them are destroyed in the lower settlements though the back Indian inhabitants still 

 bring them to market." To the orthodox protectionist it may well be a shock to discover that 

 the first indication of general scarcity was noted by NuttalP in 1832. who wrote that in Nov- 

 ember, 1831, while traveling nearly to the extremity of New Hampshire, "not a single bird of 

 the species was now to be seen". Falling into a common and much discussed error, he contin- 

 ued, "They have no doubt migrated southward with the first threatening and untimely snow." 

 That this scarcity was of sudden occurrence is indicated when he says that they were "indeed 



* Carpenter, R. C. personal letter tn the aiithnrs. I>r('rmber 26. 1911. 







