Shelter 73 



woodland, eventually reducing it to grass or weeds if continued 

 intensi\'ely beyond the lives of the crown trees. 



This is just one story of plant succession, with some alternatives 

 discussed. Many other similar trends of plant changes occur under 

 other conditions. But whatever the conditions, the potentialities of 

 ruffed grouse management are bound up in these principles. Thus 

 sound management should be based upon the manipulation of plant 

 succession by means of man's tools— axes, saws, planting irons, fire, 

 fencing, livestock, and others. 



RELATION OF SHELTER TO THE GROUSE NESTING 



Cover Types Used for Nesting. Most hen grouse shift their scene 

 of activity from a predominance of coniferous types in the winter 

 and very early spring to a predominantly hardwood type in nesting 

 season. This change to hardwood types on the part of nesting females 

 is much more pronomiced than the same trend by other grouse. The 

 predominantly coniferous types— most important through the winter 

 —are practically abandoned as nesting territory. Fewer than one 

 grouse in twenty uses a conifer type for the nest location. 



A medium-age stand of mixed hardwoods is the most commonly 

 used nesting type in New York, usually with a scattering of conifers. 

 Closely following is the medium-aged stand of mixed hardwoods 

 and conifers. These types were selected for nesting in two thirds of 

 the 1,270 instances observed (see Table 1) (Bump, 1938). When 

 the records are weighted ^ to account for the variation in extent of 

 the different cover types on tlie area, these types are still predomi- 

 nant but the slashing types also rise to prominence. From the ratios 

 of nests to acres of types, we conclude that the three types— predomi- 

 nantly hardwoods, mixed woods, and slashings— are the best types 

 for grouse nesting. The variation in acceptance between them is not 

 significant. Open land is of no value for nesting, while the over- 

 grown-land types and coniferous types are used only to a small 

 extent, far less than their proportional existence. 



Among the desii-able hardwood t)^es and mixed hardwood-coni- 

 fer types, the middle-aged stands are superior as nesting cover over 

 the mature stands by a very significant margin. 



''■ Number of records is divided by acres of cover type to provide comparable data. 



