XXV 



Preface 



WEATHER CONDITIONS 



Violent changes in the physical conditions surrounding grouse 

 are exceedingly important in affecting abundance. Weather condi- 

 tions and some of man's activities come in this category. 



As with ourselves, weather conditions affect the grouse's activities. 

 The wind, rain, snow, sleet, heat, cold, and sunshine all play a part in 

 determining where a grouse will be and what it will be doing. For 

 the young ones, the exposure to the elements may cause death, 

 quickly and surely. To the grownups it often makes them more 

 vulnerable to their enemies than they might be under more favorable 

 weather. For tlie grouse, as for most living things, the weather is of 

 the utmost importance in their lives. 



man's activities 



Man may be either beneficial or destructive to grouse. As a hunter 

 he is a killing agent, yet the removal of the surplus population may 

 actually be beneficial to the species he kills. In other ways he affects 

 the physical conditions of the environment. As a farmer he both 

 improves and destroys habitats, through plowing, cutting, and 

 fencing; he constantly arrests and alters the natural plant succession. 

 His use of fire is often detrimental to wild life, yet sometimes help- 

 ful. His livestock and pets affect both plants and animals of the wild. 



Man as a lumberman creates desirable openings and bushy growth 

 by breaking up the forest cover. But by making forests into open 

 land, he has often completely destroyed the range for grouse. As a 

 conservationist he recreates habitat, offers protection in refuges, and 

 makes laws to improve wild-lffe conditions. With some definite 

 limitations, it may be said that the future of the ruffed grouse, as 

 with all wild Iffe, rests with him. 



HABITS OF THE SPECIES 



Even as with you and me, the grouse has habits imbued in him 

 that he could do better without, at least in some respects. Many 

 inherent urges affect survival. With us it may be to drive automobiles 

 at breakneck speed, to jaywalk in tra£Bc, or to eat or drink exces- 

 sively. With the grouse it is to drum on an exposed log, to strut 



