62 The Ruffed Grouse 



range, except the coastal plain of Rhode Island and Connecticut, the 

 majority of Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey, and a few locali- 

 ties in West Virginia and western Maryland at higher altitudes. It 

 is faii-ly temperate in climate and has rather severe winters, with a 

 dependable winter snow cover. Of the three ranges it is the most 

 densely inhabited by man and, with some exceptions, the woodland 

 is well broken up with farmland. Much of it was covered by glaciers 

 during the last ice age. The best of the coverts in this range probably 

 produce somewhat higher grouse densities than either the more 

 northern or southern ranges. This is a result of good interspersion 

 and desirable cover types and moderate climate. 



The major forest types found in the northern Appalachian range 

 include: hemlock (11); sugar maple-beech-yellow birch (12); a 

 mixture of (11) and (12), which is very common; white pine (9); 

 white pine-red oak- white ash (8); aspen (4); pin cherry (5); gray 

 birch-red maple (7), and a mixture of (9) and (12). 



To a considerable extent, this range is found on the more rugged 

 lands, the poorly drained soils, or unproductive agricultural soils, 

 which have been allowed to remain in woodland or to revert to 

 woodland because of their impracticability for farming. In some 

 areas, as in parts of northern Pennsylvania, and the Catskills of 

 southeastern New York, this condition is so extensive as to allow 

 almost continuous grouse coverts over many miles, resembling in 

 this respect the more northern range. 



Over much of this range, the change in forest composition as a 

 result of cuttings for lumber and other wood products has followed 

 a trend similar to that in the North-an extension of hardwood types 

 at the expense of the hemlock and white pine. Other changes, as the 

 growing predominance of beech in many woodlands, are also im- 

 portant as affecting the ruffed grouse. 



Middle Appalachian Grouse Range. The southern range type of the 

 northeastern states' grouse range extends southward from southern 

 Pennsylvania and mid-New Jersey to include most of West Virginia, 

 western Maryland and Virginia. There are a few small areas of the 

 northern Appalachian type at higher altitudes in this zone and a 

 few areas of the southern type in central Pennsylvania, Long Island, 

 and southern New England. 



For the most part this range type does not have a dependable 



