90 JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Scarcity of the Ruffed Grouse. 



By Waltkk H. Rich. 

 The sportsmen of northern New England are facing an unfortu- 

 nate condition in the scarcity of the bird which, in this section, at 

 least, furnishes the principal cause of gun fever and is the largest 

 factor in our game supply. This bird becomes of most importance 

 to us, because he alone of all our game birds is a permanent resident 

 in our borders. For other game birds — Woodcock, Snipe, Plover 

 or Ducks — we are at the mercy of fate and the flights. If we hap- 

 pen to make our hunting trips when the birds are moving we may 

 reckon on some sport, but our good Ruffed Grouse is our verj' own 

 and always with us. For this reason the failure of the supply in this 

 instance comes closer home to us than would a like misfortune in 

 the case of any other of our feathered game. 



In my remembrance there has not l^een a season when so few 

 Ruffed (jrouse have been taken in this vicinity as have been brought 

 to bag this year, and I believe the same scarcity prevails over the 

 entire state. We have been buoying our spirits up with the hope 

 that the birds would "wander out from the thick woods" into their 

 accustomed haunts during the latter half of the season, but thus far 

 they seem to have been so deep in the thick woods that they haven't 

 found their way out as yet. 



Massachusetts and Connecticut are more fortunate than are we, 

 in that they may replenish a depleted stock of Bob Whites with 

 birds from other localities, but just now it is not feasible for us to 

 procure by a mere outlay of money some hundreds of dozens of 

 Grouse to turn loose in our covers after a hard winter or a poor 

 breeding season has reduced our native stock. 



As a matter of comparison, I would state that a sportsman of 

 my acquaintance, who last year hunted over a range of country' 

 some sixty miles from Portland, when, in a week's trip alone, he 

 took each day his lawful limit of "Partridges," and seemed to see no 

 lessening of their numbers on the last day of his stay, sent this year 

 two of his friends into the same territory, where in four days the pair 

 shot fifty-five birds, of which only five were "Partridges." 



