GROUSE AND OTHER LAND BIRDS 285 



tracts of country. Since 1905 they have been 

 pretty scarce all over the country. I think this 

 must be due to some kind of contagious disease, 

 something similar, probably, to the " grouse dis- 

 ease" of Scotland. There is no other way of ex- 

 plaining their scarcity over such an immense 

 extent of territory. Where the country is opened 

 up, and there are only patches of wood here and 

 there, it would be reasonable to suppose that they 

 might have been exterminated by over shooting 

 and snaring, but where there are thousands of 

 miles of forests, and not one in a hundred shot 

 over, it canot be put down to excessive shooting. 

 As to natural enemies they do not seem to have 

 been any more numerous here than anywhere else. 

 Last season (1908), I was over six weeks in the 

 wood with two of my boys, and we only saw six. 

 From various points throughout the country, both 

 inland and along the coast I receive the same re- 

 ports, no grouse. 



Ruffed grouse shooting in this section is not 

 sport, and is not regarded as such by the resi- 

 dents, for the reason that neither the people nor 

 the birds have been educated to it. I can count 

 on less than the fingers of one hand all the men I 

 know on this shore that will deliberately flush a 

 grouse to shoot it on the wing. As for the birds 

 themselves, unless they happen to be in an open 

 spot, they will not fly any distance. In the 

 woods, which are pretty dense here, when flushed 



