186 The Ruffed Grouse 



the young birds during the first three weeks after hatching (see 

 page 303 ) . Long an enigma to those interested in the welfare of this 

 bird, this loss has been conjectured by many authorities to be the 

 result of adverse weather. The evidence does indicate that unfavor- 

 able conditions of precipitation and temperature are often con- 

 nected with abnormally high brood losses, but it does not answer 

 the question of what causes the normally high losses at that period. 

 One of the first to suggest that excessive rain might be at the bot- 

 tom of the infant mortality was Sandys ( 1902 ) . He points out that 

 young grouse cannot stand a wetting. Conversely, he suggests that 

 five consecutive favorable seasons, i.e., dry from hatching time till 

 the chicks are past the critical stage, would mean a grand lot of 

 birds. He then concludes that the reversed conditions would mean 

 scarcity. Eaton (1910) says that in cold, wet seasons the eggs 

 hatch poorly and the young die from exposure. Forbush (1912) 

 linked the unseasonable weather from April to June of 1907 through- 

 out the Northeast with the great grouse decline of that year. He says 

 that eggs got chilled when females left the nest for food; setting 

 hens died from exhaustion, starvation, cold or disease; and chicks 

 that hatched disappeared. Stoddart (1918) listed bad weather in 

 May and June as second in importance among the many factors 

 contributing to the grouse scarcity in New York in 1916 and 1917. 

 Bump ( 1932) summarized some of the early experiences of the New 

 York study on this subject and pointed out instances in which some 

 grouse broods hatched in a protracted rainy period suffered severe 

 losses while others fared normally. Such an inequality of effect of 

 a given period of supposedly adverse weather on different groups 

 of grouse chicks has been noted repeatedly. On the occasion of one 

 severe and quite cold rainstorm in early June (temperature down 

 to 50° F., no sunshine for two succeeding days) we deliberately 

 flushed and thoroughly dispersed four different grouse broods only 

 a few days old. Each group was well soaked. Each of the four bands 

 was observed again during the next two weeks and in no case was 

 the loss greater than average. 



Contrasting with these instances are many others wherein seri- 

 ous losses immediately followed severe cold and rain in June. 

 Grouse allowed to hatch their eggs in natural enclosures in cap- 

 tivity are almost always poor mothers, and the young may often 

 become chilled and wet. In all such cases observed, most of the 



