264 The Rufled Grouse 



does not reduce the abundance of goshawks in tlie succeeding win- 

 ter; (2) the number taken is but a small part of their population; 

 (3) the kill depends mainly upon the degree of southward winter 

 migration of the species. Gerstell summarizes: ". . . the payment of 

 bounties for the destruction of goshawks in Pennsylvania will never 

 result in the control of the species ... it appears most advisable 

 to discontinue. . . ." 



With respect to the red fox which was removed from the list in 

 1929, he concludes that the record "seems to indicate that the spe- 

 cies was not controlled by the bounty," On gray foxes, "an increase 

 in the bounty rate (from $2 to $4 in 1923) has increased the number 

 of gray foxes annually presented for bounty, but as yet the species 

 shows no evidence of being controlled by the bounty." Likewise in 

 New York, in spite of constant persecution, the gray fox contiimes 

 to increase its range and its numbers. During the twenty-one years 

 prior to Gerstell's writing, an average of over fifty-two thousand 

 weasels had been presented in claim for bounty, yet "the bounty 

 system has not to any noticeable extent, if at all, controlled the 

 weasel even though two thirds of the system's cost has been ex- 

 pended in payments on the species." 



The bobcat has reacted differendy. Subject to bounty almost con- 

 tinually since 1819, "bounty has brought die wildcat under absolute 

 control in Pennsylvania." In fact, it became so scarce that it was 

 removed from the bounty list in 1937 in order to afford it some 

 chance of preservation. 



"As a predator control measure, the payment of bounties has 

 proven generally inefficient as it has placed under control only one 

 relatively small species population, while its effect on five others 

 has been negligible. ... It has been impossible to prove that the 

 operation of the bounty system over a relatively long period of years 

 has improved game conditions. Furthermore ... the annual 

 amount of money expended for bounty payments was controlled 

 not by the abundance of predators, but principally by climatic and 

 general economic conditions." 



Trapping for fur, while undertaken as an economic enterprise, 

 affects several important grouse predators. Of these, the take of sev- 

 eral species in New York is reported annually. Most significant in 

 grouse ecology are the foxes, skunk, and raccoon. Only the weasels 

 among the more important mammalian grouse enemies are not re- 



