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A Plea for the Ruffed Grouse 



In notes, April 17, issued by the Division 

 of Ornithology, Department of Agriculture, 

 Boston, Mass., there is an account of serious 

 damage to apple trees by Grouse eating the 

 fruit-buds during the past winter in Massa- 

 chusetts and New Hampshire. Some trees 

 in western Massachusetts were nearly 

 stripped. 



The same thing occurred on the Arrow 

 Lakes, British Columbia, on certain fruit 

 ranches. At Broadwater, on the Lower 

 Arrow Lake, a bunch of eight Grouse were 

 observed for a week in the apple trees. Suspi- 

 cion being aroused that they were doing 

 harm, six were shot, but the remaining two 

 made good their escape and did not return. 

 The crops of the six shot were stuffed full of 

 fruit-spurs. 



When in Victoria on a visit, I took the 

 contents of one crop to the Provincial Mu- 

 seum, and was informed by the Director, 

 Mr. F. Kermode, that he had never in his 

 experience known Grouse to attack apple 

 trees. On my return I made enquiries up 

 and down the lakes and found that on certain 

 ranches Grouse had done considerable 

 damage, while on others the trees were un- 

 touched, though the latter were often sur- 

 rounded by woods containing Grouse. 



In Massachusetts the reason given for this 

 departure from the usual feeding habits of 

 Grouse, were, first, the lack of the usual wild 

 fruits; second, increase in the number of 

 Grouse. 



On the Arrow Lakes we had an excep- 

 tionally dry summer, which no doubt af- 

 fected the usual supply of wild fruit and buds 

 on which the birds feed, but the second 

 cause did apply here, for about 1915-16 a 

 disease thinned out the Grouse to an alarming 

 extent, and only this year have they attained 

 to anything like their former numbers. 



In discussing the question with 'old timers' 

 they one and all agreed that Grouse, however 

 plentiful, did no damage to fruit trees until 



(2 



this season. Incidentally, I may remark that 

 I have examined the crop and stomach con- 

 tents of a goodly number of Ruffed Grouse 

 when they were being prepared for the table, 

 and found they contained wild fruits, buds, 

 and often a quantity of grasshoppers, espe- 

 cially a dark-colored prickly species, which 

 makes a clicking noise in flight, is common 

 here in summer, and goes by the local name 

 of 'locust.' 



It is to be hoped that ranchers and others 

 will not wage indiscriminate war on Grouse 

 in and out of season from the one experience 

 of last winter. Not until it can be proved 

 that Grouse have altered their habits, and 

 will continue to do damage, need they be 

 destroyed, and then only those individual 

 Grouse actually invading fruit ranches. 



When any damage done to fruit, and the 

 like can be traced to birds, people are only 

 too inclined to wage war against the species 

 implicated, oblivious to the fact that it may 

 be only certain individuals that are doing 

 harm, or that the birds have been forced to 

 alter their habits owing to climatic condi- 

 tions, and that given normal seasons the 

 same species does good that far outweighs 

 the harm done under abnormal circum- 

 stances. — J. E. H. Kelso, M. D., Edge-wood, 

 Arrow Lakes, B. C. 



Birds near Chicago 



Trees, feeding-shelves, and drinking-foun- 

 tains around my cabin in the Dunes attract 

 bird visitors all the year. Occasionally there 

 is one that is rare. For the last three weeks a 

 female Cardinal Grosbeak has been visiting 

 my food-shelves. This week (January 8), 

 a flock of sLx Bohemian Waxwings were in 

 my tallest perching-tree. They sat there for 

 a long time, preening their feathers and 

 chattering sociably. I was able to get close 

 to them with my glasses and get a fine view 

 with a good light on them. They were 

 larger than the Cedar Waxwing and had the 

 well-defined white marks on wings. Mr. 



72) 



