Food and Water 111 



f erred. Outstanding among the fall foods taken are acoms and haws. 

 Finaits and buds of cherries, leaves of sheep sorrel, and wild grapes 

 come next in general importance. From fifty-six to sixty-nine per cent 

 of the total fall food normally is derived from plants of fifteen 

 genera that each average two per cent or more of total fall food. 

 These are summarized in Table 4. 



While these fifteen genera of plants are listed in order of volume 

 of food furnished by each, obtained by arithmetically averaging the 

 records from the various studies of fall food habits, it is not safe to 

 attach very much importance to the exact order. The relative vol- 

 umes of food gleaned from plants of the various groups depends on 

 availability as well as preference, and even in a given locality the 

 availability of some species varies widely from year to year. Beech- 

 nuts are an excellent example— a primary and preferred fall food in 

 a good crop year, but relatively unavailable during most years. It 

 is also true that the averaging of the statistics from different studies 

 is not a proper statistical procedure. However, if the order is not 

 taken strictly, this procedure does seem to bring out the group of 

 primary foods. 



In certain areas, a food plant may be of great importance, and 

 yet not be one of the fifteen groups listed above. For example, in the 

 Adirondacks of northern New York wild raisin (Viburnum) , wood 

 ferns {Thelypteris=Dryopteris) , violets (Viola), and Juneberries 

 (Amelanchier) are among the ten most used fall foods— but all of 

 these are not among the fifteen most important for the Northeast as 

 a whole and do not average two per cent of the fall food over the 

 Northeast. 



SUMMARY OF FOODS UTILIZED 



Arbitrarily taking the twenty-five genera^ of plants that furnish 

 the most food to grouse in the Northeast year in and year out, we 

 find that their contribution to the total food of the species is from 

 sixty-five to eighty-eight per cent, varying with locality, year, and 

 season. These we may consider to be the primary foods of the ruffed 

 grouse in this region. No attempt is made at this point to say which of 

 these twenty-five is first, second, third, etc.; there is too much 



■"^ One of the groups named is a family (Polypodiaciae), that of the ferns— an as- 

 semblage of genera, of which those most used are Thelypteris and Pohjstichum. 



