Interrelationsliips of Rufied Grouse 217 



predatory species that depend upon them for food, and the indirect 

 effects upon the ruffed grouse, two very significant facts are perti- 

 nent. In spite of the gieat coincidence of the periods of major decline 

 of these rodents, there is enough dissimilarity in tlieir population 

 drops so that they are not all very scarce at once. Thus, in 1936, the 

 cottontails had only declined part way when the others "hit bottom." 



2.00 



1.75 



1.50 



125 



yi.oo 



|.75 



.50 



.25 



/ 



/ \ 



/ COnONTAIL RABBIT \ / 



-- / \ / 



\ ^ 



\ 



\ 



V 



/ 



/ 



A 



GRAY SQUIRREL / \ 



^ '- 



^ ^'" RUFFED GROUSE 



1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 



YEARS (Autumn) 



Fic. 9. New York State Game Kill Records 1930-1938. 



In 1937, the mice had increased considerably above their low point 

 and the cottontails had still not reached their low. In these two 

 worst years for buffer foods, there were still some species in fair 

 relative abundance. The second significant point is that even when 

 the rodents reached the trough of their population trends there were 

 still a lot of them, enough to support a fair number of predators. 



The only one of the predator groups that is recorded in the state 

 game kill take is the foxes. We find a slight decrease indicated in 

 these records for 1935 (see Fig. 9). 



