110 The Ruffed Grouse 



For the chicks, insects, spiders, etc. made up forty-six and eight- 

 tenths per cent of the food in the Adirondacks, sixty-eight and three- 

 tenths per cent in the Catskill part of New York and about sixty per 

 cent over the rest of the state. In July the proportion of animal food 

 in the diet has dropped to between ten and twenty per cent and in 

 August it has further declined to from one and three-tenths per cent 

 in the state outside the mountains to six and nine-tenths per cent in 

 the Adirondacks. In records on eight stomachs, Smyth found sixty- 

 six and nine-tenths per cent animal food in June, ele\'en per cent in 

 July, ten per cent (one stomach) in August. Thus, the young birds 

 change their food habits rapidly; from an almost one hundred per 

 cent insect diet in the first week or two, they shift to only a small 

 per cent of insect foods within tlu"ee months. Other foods are siiuilar 

 to those of the adults. 



Fruits eaten by the young birds are mainly the same as with the 

 adults: raspberries, strawberries, Juneberries, and cherries. How- 

 ever, raspberries assume vastly more importance than with the 

 adults, comprising over thirty per cent of the total summer food. 

 Elderberries also are considerably used. 



The young birds partake of a larger quantity of seeds in summer 

 than do their parents. Seeds of maple, violet, jewelweed, and sedge 

 are taken in considerable quantity, while leaves of sedge, buttercup, 

 and sheep sorrel are staple foods. 



Orders of insects used by the chicks in order of importance 

 are: Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Opiliones, Hemiptera 

 (bugs), and Diptera (flies). Thus the insects and other invertebrates 

 taken by the chicks come mainly from the same orders as with the 

 adults and nearly in the same order of importance. With the chicks, 

 the true bugs {Hemiptera) and flies (Diptera) were significant but 

 not for the adults; for the adults grasshoppers (Orthoptera) and 

 spiders {Arachnida) were taken in numbers but not by the chicks. 



FALL FOODS 



As summer gives way to autumn the quantities of fruits and green 

 leaves in the diet gradually decrease, insects nearly disappear, and 

 buds are taken in constantly increasing abundance. It is not until the 

 arrival of winter, however, that buds become the dominant type of 

 food. As long as fruits and tender leaves are available, they are pre- 



