METHODS AND TECHNIQUES 



By Walter F. Crissey 



ORGANIZATION OF THE INVESTIGATION 

 GENERAL METHODS 



Selection of Study Areas — Mapping — Personnel — Securing Observations — 

 Recording Observations 



SPECIAL TECHNIQUES 



Determining Shelter Relationships — Determining Food Relationships — Deter- 

 mining Weather Relationships — Determining Predator and Buffer Relationships 

 — Predator Abundance and Activity — Buffer Abundance — Food Habits of Predators — 

 Predators Responsible for Grouse Kills and Nest Destruction — Determining Effect 

 OF Hunting — Determining Disease Relationships — Estimating Grouse Popula- 

 TioNs — Trapping and Marking Grouse — Determining Sex and Ace 



USE OF BIOMETRICAL ANALYSIS 



Significance — Chi-Square — Analysis of Variance — Regression and Correlation 



SS 



The success of any project is greatly influenced by the methods and techniques employed. 

 At the beginning of the Investigation there was a lack of standard means for carrying on 

 such work since most of the ])ioncering, u])on which cdicient methods were eventually based, 

 had only just begun. It was natural, therefore, that the process of standardizing methods, 

 weeding out unsatisfactory techniques and the production of usable knowledge should have 

 gone hand iti hand during the course of the study. 



Roth sportsmen and wildlife research workers are naturally interested in knowing how 

 the records were collected and analyzed as well as what conclusions were drawn from them. 



To that end, it is the purpose of this section to discuss briefly the organization of the 

 Investigation and. in more detail, the methods which were newly developed or adapted from 

 existing wildlife research techniques. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE INVESTIGATION 



The Ruffed Grouse Investigation was the direct result of the great scarcity of grouse in 

 New York State in 1927-28. At the request of a special committee of alarmed sportsmen* 

 funds were provided by the 1928-29 Legislature for a thorough study to determine and eval- 

 uate as many as possible of the causes underlying the varying abundance of ruffed grouse 



* See Chapter I. 



