ECOIKOMIC IMPORTANCE 101 



rows, for they were not worth a charge of powder". From a quaint tract entitled "'New 

 England's Plantations""", published in 1630, one gathers that turkeys, grouse, geese and ducks 

 played a major part in the daily dinners of the earliest settlers. 



Utilized at first for personal use only, as time went on grouse became increasingly popular 

 as a commercial food. Two score years ago it required hundreds of thousands of grouse an- 

 nually to satisfy the hungry markets in the larger cities. Prices, where birds were scarce, ran 

 as high as $5.00 or even $7.00 a pair, though during periods of abundance they ofttimes 

 sold for 50 cents apiece.* 



With the prohibition of its sale, grouse have come to be looked upon more as an excuse 

 for a keen day's sport than merely as an article of food, even though today they remain one 

 of the greatest delicacies of the hunt. The best figures available indicate that upwards of 

 two million grouse may be shot annually throughout its range during periods of normal 

 abundance. The average bird will weigh about a pound and a half in the field. Properly 

 prepared, the annual harvest may furnish upwards to four niillii>n meals. 



The Importance of Food Preferences 



Though grouse are highly insectivorous as youngsters and later great seed-eaters, they can- 

 not compare with either the ring-necked pheasant or the bolnvhite quail to say nothing of 

 many of the smaller birds in their consumption of items detrimental to agriculture. This is 

 only natural, since good grouse coverts are never highly cultivated. Their food consists largely 

 of woodland fruits, berries, buds, seeds and leaves, with minor emphasis on insects in the 

 summer. For the most part, their feeding habits neither citnllict with, nor contribute to, 

 man's interest. 



True, some seeds are not digested and many wildlife food |)lants are thereby more widely 

 dispersed. But it is mainly among the insects that the grouse makes its relati\ely small con- 

 tribution. The list of species picked up. largely by the chicks, includes, according to McAtee 

 and Beal ' ', the Colorado potato beetle, clover root weevil, pale strijied flea beetle. grape\ ine 

 leaf beetle, red humped apple caterpillar, grasshoppers, cottonworms. army worms, cutworms, 

 sawfly larvae and May beetles. To this group our own studies have added adult sawflies, the 

 strawberry weevil, black vine weevil, poplar borer, cucumber beetle, elm leaf beetle, maple- 

 tree worm, canker worm, and various plant bugs and leaf hoppers. 



Though ants, beetles, and caterpilla-s are taken primarily among this group, the great 

 abundance of insects in general'^, as well as of other foods, and the relatively large territory 

 available to each brood, makes it doubtful if grouse alone, even where they are plentiful, make 

 much of an impression on the numbers of harmful species. Nevertheless they do. of course, 

 contribute a share to the aggregate beneficial effect of birds in holding in check the hexapod 

 hordes. 



* See ChaptiT I. p. 8. 



A Sporial stiiilirs ..I iiis.-it al.iin.lan.-.- in Jim.' .it IIM an.l 1937 nn llio Connrrlicul Hill an.! A.lirnnilack areas rt-vcaled an 

 average of over 300.000 indiviiliials per aere in good grouse cover (Biimmer feedinK Eroiindl. 







