IN MEMORIAM 691 



IN MEMORIAM 



As we idly finger the pages of this book, our work seemingly done, we realize with a 

 guilty start that, in the very last sentences we have left the poor grouse fluttering in the 

 dubious care of the communists. Surely, this is no fitting end for such a gnllant friend, the 

 source of years of research, work and fun. It is our desire, as well as our duty, to make 

 the parting fit the honor we owe him. 



The Investigation has been extensive. We have gone back over twenty-five thousand years 

 to dig him up. We've played with him among the Indians and pioneers: slaughtered him 

 with sticks and guns, and trapped and sold him to greedy markets. We've invaded and de- 

 stroyed his home and designed new mansions for him; sampled his food and prepared new 

 menus; robbed his nests, adopted his babies and nursed them for better or for worse. We've 

 tried to propagate and manage him, practiced eugenics on him, psychoanalyzed him. probed 

 his insides, studied his diseases and exposed his parasites. We've consorted with his enemies, 

 we've swapped stories and spun yarns about him. 



We've thrilled to his quirk wil and trick\ flight; stood s])el]bound listening to his drum- 

 ming and watching his love antics. We've discovered he's a healthy specimen and lost most 

 of our preconceived notions about cycles and the grouse disease and pet fallacies of what 

 causes the fluctuations in his abundance. He's still a mystery, still unpredictable and, be- 

 cause of our research, a bigger, broader problem than ever before. 



With it all, we love him for what he has been in the past, what he is in the present and 

 what we hope he will be in the future. He may have thrown us for many a technical loss, he 

 is a stubborn subject, but science refuses to be discouraged — the work will go on. 



No re|>ort or book will ever write finis to a scientific subject as complex as is the grouse. 

 Keen minds will conlimie to delve ever deeper into this fascinating riddle. To them, and 

 to you, oh reader, who has waded with us through this labyrinth, our deepest sympathies — 

 and to the ruffed grouse our humblest regards. 



The Authors. 



