100 THE Sl'ECIES—lTS TAXOXOMY, RANGE, BIOEOGY. & ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 



Grouse chicks have four principal calls. For two or three weeks after hatching, they 

 usually voice several loud "peeps" of alarm upon being disturbed. During this same time, 

 as well as throughout most the brood period, they are seldom able to remain silent long after 

 being flushed. On such occasions, their first expression is an inquiring series of two or three 

 peeps in an ascending scale with an upward inflection at the end. as if to say, "Here I am, 

 where are you, what is the situation'.'''" Often closely following the latter is a plaintive call 

 composed of two or three peeps in a descending scale, each having a downward inflection, 

 and seeming to say, "I'm lost. I'm scared, where is everyone?" Older chicks also seem to 

 use a definite warning signal of several notes in a descending pattern, the first two rather 

 sharp, the rest progressively diminishing in intensity and length. But as summer wanes, the 

 young birds rapidly acquire an adult vocabulary. 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE* 



As some forgotten sage has put it, "One man's meat is another man's poison''. Whatever 

 he may have had in mind at the time, his maxim is likewise applicable to wildlife in its 

 relations to man. Human interests are so varied it would be well nigh impossible for a 

 species of any consequence to be equally valued by all. The ruffed grouse is no exception. 



In considering the economic niche best fitting this bird, it is at once apparent that circum- 

 stances differ widely between regions. A sporting bird of the first water, the grouse in cer- 

 tain areas may be so scarce that no ojien season is feasible, while in other parts of its range 

 sportsmen are so rare that its liest use is to supplement the grub bag of the occasional trapper. 

 Yet those most concerned with this phase of the bird s ecology are interested in regions where 

 a wider \ariet\ of relationships are involved. 



Standards of merit, however, are divers. To the frontiersman, food value was paramount. 

 In the early days of economic ornithology, the relation of birds to agriculture was a major 

 criterion. Undcrstandabl), therefore, authors have ascribed great importance to the numbers 

 of noxious insects consumed by the birds which they have studied. To this tendency grouse 

 biographers have by no means been immune. Characterizations of the grouse as the farmers' 

 friend, because of its feeding habits, appeared as early as 1832 and have gained many ad- 

 herents in the literature as well as elsewhere. Less complimentary and more vehement has 

 been the controversy between sportsman and orchardist as to the damage grouse mav do by 

 budding fruit trees. Another major consideration pertains to the one time extensive finan- 

 cial interests of the market hunter which have given way to the even more productive main- 

 tenance of grouse as a game crop, the harvesting of which, the country over, draws afield 

 over half a million men and women each year. And then there are those who regard the bird 

 from a purely aesthetic point of view. These, and others in less degree, will give some indica- 

 ti<.n of the |)lace the ruffed grouse occupies in man's economic and recreational domain. 



But to give the reader a more complete picture of the situation, it seems ad\isablc to dis- 

 cuss further the more important aspects of the problem. Considering them in more or less 

 chronological order, the earliest use made of the grouse b\ iiiaii undoubtedly was as an article 

 of food. 



Groitse as a Food 



i he while, leiidet ile>li of the bird is liighK palalalije when properly cooked. 1 hat the 

 Indians probably made considerable use of it. especially during its ])eriods of abundance, 

 was indicated bv Hanm de I.ahontoii"'' ^vh^ reported in 1703 that tliev "shot th<'m with ar- 



Hy Ganliiirr Hump. 



