206 The RufiFed Grouse 



"Not a trace of a game bird egg was found." In both of these studies 

 no grouse either were noted. The grouse eggs that skunks eat are 

 to them merely an occasional treat, not a dependable or sizable item 

 of food. 



Goshawk. This magnificent hawk is the only one that might dis- 

 pute the horned owl's pre-eminence as a killer of giown grouse. A 

 daytime hunter, it has a different type of attack; it simply overtakes 

 the grouse by superior speed and maneuverability. This is all the 

 proof needed of this bird's hunting prowess. 



It may be fortunate for the grouse that the goshawk is not more 

 generally plentiful. It is primarily found from northern New Eng- 

 land and New York northward, although it occurs locally southward 

 into Pennsylvania. It visited the Connecticut Hill area only in winter 

 and then only in occasional years. From 1930 through 1933 it was 

 not recorded at all; then a few were observed each winter for the 

 next three years. In these winters, the goshawks levied a high toll 

 of grouse, considering their own numbers. The proportion of all 

 grouse killed by predators that were taken by goshawks averaged 

 only about four per cent the first four years ( op. cit. ) . Thus it ranked 

 fourth among predators of adult grouse, behind the horned owl, 

 foxes, and Cooper's hawk. But in its more year-round range, the 

 goshawk probably is the most destructive of all adult grouse enemies. 

 No doubt where the hawks breed, they take young grouse in the 

 summer too. 



The goshawk is the one species of predator for which the ruffed 

 grouse furnishes a really big proportion of the food. McAtee ( 1935) 

 says: Grouse, chiefly ruffed grouse, were determined in thirty-one 

 of the stomachs out of two hundred and forty-three examined, or 

 twelve and eight-tenths per cent. McDowell (1941), in examining 

 one hundred and one goshawk stomachs taken from November 

 through May in Pennsylvania, records an incidence of thirteen and 

 nine-tenths per cent of grouse, which amounted to thirteen and two- 

 tenths per cent of this predator's whole diet. Mendall (1944) found 

 remains of grouse in five of thirty-one (sixteen and one-tenth per 

 cent) of these hawks taken in Maine throughout the year. McAtee 

 concludes: "On the economic side, there is comparatively little that 

 can be said in its favor." In spite of its destructiveness, I still have 

 a great admiration for the goshawk. In it, and the duck hawk, nature 



