210 FOOD HABITS A\ I) ItlAjVIREMENTS 



in average rank. For example, leaves, and to a lesser exlenl the siiiall seeds, of wood sorrel 

 (Oxalis), are taken tliroughout the year. 



Particularly favored hideaways of the grouse are beneath low-sweeping evergreen branches 

 or well up in the crowns of pines, hemlocks or spruces. Here, particularly in winter, they 

 pick an occasional needle or even a bud or two. iNow and then they may take a cropful, as 

 did one Greene County (IS. Y.) bird, which divided its attention on a late January day be- 

 tween white pine (Pinus Slrobus) needles and thornapples. The needles are eaten consis- 

 tently but in small quantities by grouse in captivity, either as a substitute for other greens 

 or to furnish roughage. Curiously enough, pine seeds, though palatable to many birds and 

 available in quantity every two or three years, are largely ignored. 



Hemlock (Tsiiga canadensis) needles likewise are eaten, though the seeds may be better 

 liked, judging from several records. One bird taken in the western Catskills, early in March 

 laboriously picked up 3,200 seeds and 138 needles. With little else to do from December to 

 March, four other birds had each consumed on the day they were collected more than 1,000 

 seeds, the highest record being Sj.'iOO which still made up less than one-fourth of the crop 

 contents. Included also were 244 buds of shadbush, as well as 566 buds and a large quan- 

 tity of the leaves of the laurel. In the Northwest, the gray ruffed grouse ( B. ii. umbelloides), 

 though occasionally making a meal of spruce buds"'", never feeds upon them so extensively as 

 does its near relative the spruce grouse (Canachiles canadensis). 



Perhaps because certain members are so generally distributed throughout the grouse woods 

 of the Northeast, the lily family (Liliaceae) is worthy of mention. Certainly the 145 adults 

 and 16 chicks that fed on the berries of the two-leaved Solomon's seal ( Maianthemum cana- 

 dense) found them useful. Farther south the fruits and the partly persistent leaves of green- 

 briers (Smilax) are sometimes important fall and winter foods"'. 



The seed-filled capsules of violets iViolaceael are commonly taken by chicks, though they 

 are too small to bulk large in the adult diet. The tender stalks of beechdrops (Epijagus vir- 

 giniana) are taken by adults in late summer and in the fall. They belong to the broomrape 

 family (Orobanchaceae). 



One bird started the New Year by swallowing 18 of the thick-fleshed fruits of the skunk 

 cabbage (Syniplocarpus joclidus), an early spring favorite of grouse and pheasants alike 

 in low swampy grounds. Allen" found mulberries (Morus) to be much relished by young 

 grouse raised in ca|)tivity. Along with a host of other birds, wild grouse also enjoy this 

 fruit, particularly in the South. Loomis' '. writing of South Carolina "pheasants" says, "At 

 this season (June) the mulberry trees are in fruit, and are much resorted to. Two of these 

 trees at the foot of Ml. Pinnacle were visited daily by pheasants during my stay." 



Fruits of the bittersweet nightshade ( Solaniun Ditlcaniara) liang on well into the winter in 

 many gain<' coverts and ar<' much liked by ])heasanls. Nine nialure grouse and one chick sam- 

 pled them. To one DcdMnlicr liird from Oswego County (N.Y.) they must have been really 

 attractive, for it had eaten in excess of 300, as represented by more than 3.000 seeds in ils giz- 

 zard. Another red berr\. less noticed by grouse than one might expect, is the swam])-loving 

 winterberry (Ilex verliiillnhi) . Though it is widely (lislributcij and ils scarlet fruits persist 

 nnlil s]iring, only eight grouse had sampled it, all in small i|niuililics. 



Lillle mention has been made of the various cullivated grains, for grouse survive compe- 

 tently without liicm. In cajitivilv little (lifliculty is encountered in teaching these birds to eat 

 cereals, including corn, wheat, oats and buckwheat. Except in cold weather when corn is a 



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