138 The Riiffed Grouse 



fertile soil but occur on a variety of sites from dry to wet. They 

 require lots of Hght to fruit well and climb to the top of the tallest 

 trees to gain full exposme to the sun. 



Grapes are a favorite food of many kinds of wild life besides 

 grouse. The fable of the fox and the grapes indicates the taste for 

 grapes that characterizes both the red and gray foxes. These fruits 

 are also a staple food of the ring-necked pheasant, bobwhite, and 

 skunk; and are eaten also by the wild turkey, mourning dove ( seeds ) 

 and Hungarian partridge. Nearly a hundred kinds of songbirds are 

 known to eat grapes. Among mammals, other than foxes and skunks, 

 that eat grapes are the raccoon, opossum, white-tailed deer, red 

 squirrel, and cottontail. This competition very likely alters the local 

 distribution of grouse, and may sometimes affect abundance locally. 



Chemical analysis ( Hosley, 1938, frost grape— fresh fruit ) : water 

 —11.6 per cent; protein— 9.5 per cent; fat— 4.8 per cent; nitrogen- 

 free extract— 43.7 per cent; crude fiber— 26.4 per cent; ash— 4.0 per 

 cent. Vitis sp. (dried fruit) (Wright, 1940): water— 8.4 per cent; 

 protein— 7.4 per cent; fat— 2.1 per cent; nitrogen-free extract— 56.1 

 per cent; fiber— 22.8 per cent; ash— 4.0 per cent. 



SECONDARY GROUSE FOODS 



The twenty-five genera supplying the greatest volume of food 

 throughout the year have been discussed in some detail as the pri- 

 mary foods of the species. There are numerous other foods that 

 either furnish a significant amount of food generally or are of special 

 value in restricted areas. These secondary foods are here arbitrarily 

 restricted to those that have constituted one per cent or more of the 

 seasonal food of grouse in the records of a study covering one or 

 more states. Added to the volume of the twenty-fi^ e primary foods, 

 from ninety-four to ninety-nine per cent of the birds' normal food 

 in the Nortlieast is covered by the two groups. The forty-one genera 

 of plants and the insects and miscellaneous animal foods that are 

 included in the category of secondary foods are here annotated. 



Maples (Acer) : Buds and seeds of at least four species are taken. 

 Seeds composed two and three-tenths per cent of the summer food 

 of grouse chicks in the Adirondacks of New York, one and one-tenth 

 per cent in the rest of the State outside the Catskills, and from 

 two and four-tenths to three and nine-tenths per cent of summer 



