chronicle of the Ruffed Grouse in Eastern United States 23 



depletion. Nuttall, in 1832, in New Hampshire, an article in the U. S. 

 Gazette for November 18, 1832, and an anonymous editor in New 

 York the same year, called attention to the disappearance of the 

 birds in the winter of 1830-31 where they had been abundant the 

 year before. Simple explanations were offered: migrated southward 

 and hard winter respectively. They had not learned enough of the 

 problem to make it complicated. 



Written records reveal a few more so-called disappearances in the 

 nineteenth centuiy. The most definite records of scarcity are for a 

 few years after the Civil War in eastern New York, for 1866 in Ver- 

 mont (but abundant in Massachusetts that year), 1877 in New 

 York, 1883 in Ontario, and 1896-97 in Pennsylvania. After the turn 

 of the 1900's, when the interest in sport had greatly increased, the 

 story is far more complete. 



An exceedingly hard winter in 1903-04 seemed to have resulted in 

 serious grouse losses in the Northeast. Following this, Forbush un- 

 dertook the first of several questionnaire studies by sending out an 

 inquiry to several hundred naturalists and sportsmen in Massachu- 

 setts. When the very severe scarcity of 1906-07 came it was quite 

 generally recognized throughout the Northeast. It was feared that 

 the end of the grouse was at hand. So alarmed was the Forest, Fish 

 and Game Commission of New York that an investigation was 

 ordered. The questionnaire survey which resulted ( Woodruff, 1907 ) , 

 in addition to the four standard explanations— disease, bad weather, 

 predators, hunting— added five more to the growing list of possibili- 

 ties. He concluded that it probably was caused by an unhappy com- 

 bination of the first three of these four. 



While the meeting of the minds brought about by the 1907 survey 

 resulted in the concept that a combination of factors may have im- 

 pelled this gi'ouse decline, the survey covering the next great decline 

 disclosed just how complicated the problem can become when more 

 attention is given to it. Following the 1914-16 period of decline, the 

 New York State Conservation Department, this time in cooperation 

 with the American Game Protective Association, again sponsored a 

 questionnaire survey (Stoddart, 1918) in an attempt to ferret out 

 the cause of the decline. No less than forty-five contributing causes 

 are listed, the most prominent being foxes, bad nesting seasons, and 

 hawks. Great emphasis is laid on predation; there are eighteen 

 factors within this classification. Among the also-rans are: driven out 



