258 The Ruffed Grouse 



ecology were undertaken by field studies in 1930, 1931, and 1936. 

 Several areas of average quality grouse coverts running from about 

 one hundred to three hundred acres each in size in Tompkins 

 County, N. Y, (six of them in 1930 and thirteen in 1931), v^ere cen- 

 sused and the hunting results checked. The kill averaged ten per 

 cent of the birds in 1930 and sixteen per cent in 1931 (Edminster, 

 1933), individual units of cover lost from zero to fifty per cent of 

 their birds to the hunters. The very lov^^ return in the first year 

 probably reflects the reluctance of the hunters to pursue grouse 

 during the first open season after two years of closure and grouse 

 scarcity. This feeling was somewhat abated the next year although 

 it apparently took several years to disappear entirely. 



Another check on the hunting take was made in the fall of 1936 

 on a portion of the Connecticut Hill area not devoted to the regular 

 studies. On a total of 1,379 acres of coverts, the hunters took fourteen 

 per cent of the October grouse population ( N, Y. S. Cons. Dept. Ann. 

 Rep., 1937). The highest kill on any of the three cover units involved 

 was twenty-three per cent. 



During 1932 to 1935 two studies bearing on this subject were 

 made in Minnesota and Michigan. While done under different eco- 

 logical conditions, the results are interesting for comparison. Trip- 

 pensee (1935) found the hunting take on national forest land in 

 Minnesota in 1934 to vary widely. On one unit of two sections of 

 land the kill was only nine and four-tenths per cent; on another unit 

 of four sections it was thirty-eight and two-tenths per cent. A sum- 

 mary of his figures for all of the 6,400 acres involved gives an average 

 take of nineteen and seven-tenths per cent of the fall population. 



The study in Michigan in 1932 and in 1935 was summarized in a 

 letter from Harry Ruhl to me in 1936. The 1932 results on the 

 Pigeon River State Forest showed a hunter take of six and seven- 

 tenths per cent of the September population (probably somewhat 

 higher for the prehunting season population of mid-October ) on the 

 four square miles censused. The 1935 studies were made on two 

 areas. Pigeon River State Forest and Escanaba River Tract (Mich. 

 St. Cons. Dept., Biennial Rep., 1935-36). The hunter bag on the 

 Pigeon River area was seventeen and three-tenths per cent and on 

 the Escanaba tract seventeen and four-tenths per cent. The Pigeon 

 River data when developed on the basis of a September census gave 

 a kill of only ten per cent, thus indicating that the 1932 records 



