98 



Game Survey of the North Central States 



proposed program is over $150,000 by 1934. No sane industrial enterprise 

 would tolerate such flimsy research insurance for so large an enterprise, but in 

 conservation the risk of biological ignorance is cheerfully assumed, and those who 

 plead for research appropriations are dismissed as "impractical scientists." 



Rabbits and Birds. I strongly suspect a parallelism between the be- 

 havior of rabbit and grouse populations much more far-reaching than the already 

 prevalent assumption that ruffed grouse and snowshoes have the same cycle, and 

 that the cycle may have a common cause. 



SEASONS ON COTTONTAIL 



\OPeN ^OPCfi IN SOME COUNTIES ^CLOS 

 (fIGUKES INDICATE DAILY BAG LIMIT) 



W/S. 



MICH. 



IOWA 



IHD. 



MO. 



902 



903 



904 



19/3 

 1914 

 1915 

 I9lk 

 II II 

 1116 

 19/9 



..v,. 



1921 

 1922 



1923 

 1924 

 1926 

 1926 

 1927 

 1928 

 1929 

 1930 



F 



L 



CHART 5 



Taking all species of rabbit and hare together, they display a tendency to 

 be stable in the South, and to fluctuate with increasing violence toward the North 

 and West. This has already been described as holding good for quail, and sub- 

 sequent chapters show it holds good for grouse. 



Some mammalogist ought to study the cottontail in the Appalachian high- 

 lands to^see if the fluctuations do not become violent there, as they do in grouse. 



Reasoning backwards, the cottontail in the cornbelt and the South may be 

 found to have a saturation point, like quail. It will be higher than quail, because 

 they draw on a larger food supply. This saturation point may be expected to 

 prevail wherever the cycle does not. 



