Food and Water 179 



tion of some important vitamin, might be affected by changes in the 

 character of sunHght reaching the earth in different years. And that 

 change might be brought about by the cycles in sunspots. 



These questions and others of similar import have been seriously 

 asked in recent years. Sunspot cycles have been clearly recognized, 

 and some correlations with fluctuations in life on the earth seem to 

 be satisfactorily established. It followed, therefore, that the records 

 of grouse cycles would be compared with the sun phenomenon. The 

 correspondence is not conclusive, although there appears to be 

 enough relationship to maintain one's further interest. 



The evidence at hand refutes the probability of any serious re- 

 lationship between quality of food and high mortality among giouse. 

 However, the matter is far from settled, and the opportunity for 

 direct testing of the possible relationships is practically virgin. It 

 seems probable that if a deficiency in winter food quality resulted 

 in weakling chicks, it would show a definite effect in one or more of 

 the leading factors in reproduction: size of clutch, degree of fer- 

 tility, proportion of females nesting, or percentage of loss of em- 

 bryos during incubation. None of these, however, show any connec- 

 tion with excessive infant mortality that we can discern. We must 

 conclude tentatively, therefore, that the hypothesis of a major con- 

 nection between food quality and grouse health is unlikely to be 

 valid. 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF GROUSE FOOD HABITS 



Early investigators rated the ruffed grouse an important economic 

 asset to the farmer from the standpoint of its insect consumption. 

 According to Judd (1905) "Bugs . . . are much more often de- 

 stroyed by bobwhite and the ruffed grouse than by other birds. The 

 ruffed grouse has been known to prey on the chinch bug, which at 

 times is the most injurious insect in our country, and seldom de- 

 stroyed by any gallinaceous birds. Farmers who permit market 

 hunters to rob them of their game should remember this point." 

 This inclination to point up the insect-consuming habits of grouse 

 as a benefit to agriculture was natural but the conclusion reached 

 has not withstood the test of further study. In the first place, the 

 grouse are dominantly insectivorous only as chicks, and then only 

 for a few weeks. Secondly, the insects are taken primarily from 



