296 The Ruffed Grouse 



themselves in each of the areas. This is as would be expected, and 

 may indicate a different productivity or carrying capacity; or It 

 may simply mean the records were obtained at a different phase 

 of the population trend. 



An area of eight hundred sixteen acres of continuous forest in 

 the eastern Adirondacks that was censused from 1932 to 1936 

 showed consistently lower densities than Connecticut Hill. The 

 breeding season densities ranged from a grouse per twenty acres at 

 the high ( although there was evidence of a somewhat higher popu- 

 lation the previous year) to forty-three acres per grouse. Produc- 

 tivity was also consistently lower here than on Connecticut Hill. 

 The peak densities ranged from thirteen and six-tenths acres per 

 grouse to forty-one acres per grouse. (N. Y. S. Cons. Dept. Ann. Re- 

 ports, 1932-36; Edminster, 1938). This record supports the general 

 principle that areas of continuous forest are not as productive and 

 do not have as high a carrying capacity as broken-up cover. 



Records were obtained on an area in the Catskill Moimtain region 

 of New York of one thousand one hundred twenty-eight acres of 

 almost continuous woods in the western part of the mountains. It 

 was censused in March, 1936 and 1937 by biologists of the Resettle- 

 ment Administration. Here the densities were considerably lower 

 than on the broken-up covert Connecticut Hill area, being thirty- 

 seven acres per grouse in 1936 and thirty-one acres per grouse in 

 1937. 



From all these records we may conclude that in the better North- 

 east grouse range we may anticipate a breeding season density of 

 eight to ten acres per grouse and a peak-season density of a bird 

 per five acres in the good years. In poorer cover and poorer years 

 the density falls to half these densities or even poorer, even on an 

 ordinarily good range. Shooting season populations are usually 

 around fifteen per cent below those of the peak season. 



Numerous other censuses of ruffed grouse have been made in 

 recent years, notably in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota. 

 While comparisons of these data with New York records are diffi- 

 cult to interpret, they do indicate the adaptabihties of the species 

 in various regions and the great variations that occur in grouse 

 abundance. 



Fisher (1939) gives data on grouse densities on five areas in 

 Michigan censused for two or more years each between 1932 and 



