208 The Ruffed Grouse 



While eggs of all kinds may be an appreciable part of the crow's 

 spring food, it would be rare indeed for grouse eggs alone to amount 

 to a very significant item. 



Other Mammalian Grouse Predators. Both the raccoon and the red 

 squirrel have in some years been of considerable significance as 

 grouse nest predators on the Connecticut Hill area. On the average, 

 the raccoon was responsible for the destruction of about eight per 

 cent of the nests taken by all predators, and the red squirrel for only 

 about two per cent. The bobcat, and no doubt the Canada lynx 

 where it occurs, are of some importance as grouse predators, pri- 

 marily in winter. Neither of these wild cats occurred on Connecticut 

 Hill, however. Of one hundred and forty bobcat stomachs examined 

 by Hamilton and Hunter (1939) from animals taken from fall to 

 late winter in Vermont, twelve contained grouse. These composed 

 five and five-tenths per cent of the bulk of the food. The authors 

 conclude: "It is evident the bobcat has little trouble in catching 

 grouse. Dearborn found no evidence of grouse remains in more 

 than three hundred feces, although grouse were abundant around 

 the swamps where the wildcats live.'" A trace of grouse remains 

 was found in the intestine of one mink from among one hundred and 

 two specimens examined from southern Michigan (Sealandt, 1943). 

 Woodchucks are known to have broken up a few nests, and the 

 porcupine has been recorded as eating grouse eggs {Pennsylvania 

 Game News, May, 1933 ) . Chipmunks have a habit of stealing grouse 

 eggs and storing them in holes. King ( 1937) found this to be of con- 

 siderable significance in Minnesota and noted that playful chip- 

 munks used the eggs like marbles. House cats that roam grouse 

 coverts no doubt take some grouse. Dogs, likewise, will occasionally 

 break up a giouse nest, but rarely will catch a grown grouse. It is at 

 least possible that shrews (Blarina) may take grouse eggs occasion- 

 ally, since they have been recorded to have eaten whippoorwill eggs. 



Other Avian Grouse Predators. Several species of hawks in addi- 

 tion to the accipitrine trio already discussed occasionally take a 

 grouse. None are of much significance. McAtee (1935) reported 

 grouse in three of seven hundred and fifty-four stomachs of red- 

 tailed hawks, in four of six hundred and one marsh hawks, and, 

 surprisingly enough, in one stomach of a broad-winged hawk. Men- 

 dall (1944) reports the remains of one bird, "apparently a ruffed 



