186 



FOOD HABITS AM) REQUIREMENTS 



Feeding Periods 



Many novices at hunting grouse are sure that the birds feed at the beginning and end 

 of the day. Oldtimers are more reticent about committing themselves. Each can likely re- 

 member seeing a cluster of birds about a thornapple tree in late afternoon, or birds budding 

 an apple tree at woods edge well into the evening when the moon was bright. But the 

 oldtimer also remembers grouse feeding at high noon on beechnuts shucked out over the 

 snow on a January day. The truth seems to be that where particularly attractive foods are 

 to be found, there is a tendency for the birds to feed early and late: but the exceptions are 

 legion. In general there is so much food available in most New York grouse habitats during 

 all seasons of the year that the birds can feed al any time they choose. 



Where favorite foods abound the birds must occasionally spend hours filling their crops 

 with unbelievable amounts of buds, leaves, catkins or fruits. Thus one bird collected in win- 

 ter was found to have eaten 1.300 buds of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloidesj , while 

 another had taken some 1.400 buds of cherry (Pruiius) as well as smaller amounts of three 

 other kinds of buds. Since hop-hornbeam (Oslrya virginiana ) catkins are by no means as 

 common as the buds, the grouse that ate 820 of them must have spent a substantial portion 

 of a day or night aloft in the quest. The same may be said of the bird in whose crop 1.069 

 hairy fruits of staghorn sumach (Rhus typhina) were found. Nor is this filling-up tendency 

 limited to winter, for the crop of a bird collected in spring in the Catskills contained nearly 

 a half pint of mountain laurel (Kalmia lalijolia) leaves. A crop obtained in the same region 

 in summer held 20 fruits and more than 6.000 seeds of strawberry ( Fragaria). A favorite 

 trick of both chicks and adults is to combine the lazy luxury of a summer dust bath with the 

 picking uj) of insects, [larticularly ants, that may venture their way. 



In summer, though, food seems to be so abundant that the birds can get all thev want at 

 any time, for the crops are not so well filled, on the average, as at other seasons. (See 

 table 211. 



TABLE 21. AVI:H\(;I-: \()1J \II;s, I.\ cubic CKNTlMI-n'KHS, OK Till-; CROP \M) 



C.IZZABD CONTENTS OK 1.0'):i ADULT CHOUSE, 



BY SEASON AND REGION— NEW YORK 



'Average for all years, all seasons: crop. 15.9; gizzard, 8.4. 



Of all the elements, onlv wind seems coniinorii\ In ;i<Tr( t ihc nilTcd grouse sufficiently to 

 change their feeding schedules. They are likeh to be more alert and nervous on windy 

 days, but they move around less. Activity is ah-^o reduced during the colder days of winter. 

 Food then may be of less concern than shelter, for a bird may not emerge from a snow 

 riiosl until mid-afternoon. 



Hroods. while more active, usually are delighlfulK castial in their feeding habits. Such a 

 group may start out 'in hour or so after sun-uj), but before the dew has left the grass. Each 

 little excursion is likely to be precipitated by one or two especially acti\e or hungry chicks 



