78 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



finally even ten-year close seasons could not bring 

 it back. 



Without a quick and thorough reform, that his- 

 tory is destined to be reenacted between the Missis- 

 sippi and the Rocky Mountains, and at least three 

 fine species will totally disappear even while the 

 world is crying "Shame!" It is useless to talk of 

 the value of those three grouse with their annihila- 

 tion actually taking place before our eyes! The 

 situation is too exasperating for words. We la- 

 bored hard with the Department of Agriculture to 

 have the pinnated grouse which is a migratory 

 bird included in the protection of the federal 

 migratory bird law; but the hostility of the game- 

 killers of the pinnated grouse territory was feared 

 so much that for the present that grouse is left to 

 its fate at the hands of the states that it has the mis- 

 fortune to inhabit. 



The eastern ruffed grouse, often miscalled the 

 "pheasant," is the only grouse of the United States 

 concerning which we can at present indulge even 

 a ray of hope. It inhabits timber and brush and 

 rocky hillsides, it does not live in large flocks like 

 the grouse of prairie countries, and it can not be 

 run down with dogs, camp-wagons and automobiles 

 as the prairie grouse are. It is damaged during the 

 breeding season by roaming bird-dogs, but cats do 

 not seriously affect it, and a bad shot seldom kills 

 it. It is to other grouse what the white-tailed deer 

 is to other hoofed game a timber-loving skulker 



