Grouse cannot stand the ordinary destruction by natural 

 enemies and the destruction by guns at the same time. Since 

 the birds continued to vanish after shooting had been pro- 

 hibited, it is evident that there are other causes for this besides 

 shooting. The destruction of their foods and covers are 

 sufficient to account for the loss. Cats, rats, and roving dogs 

 in many places prevent any increase in their numbers. Prairie 

 fires and floods often exterminate them on large areas. The 

 same may be said of the sharp-tailed grouse, and the "prairie 

 chicken" of the Northwestern states which once was plentiful 

 as far west as California; this bird has suffered, also, from the 

 loss of its food and covers. The prairie grasses, the wild rose, 

 the wild sunflower and many other food plants often are abso- 

 lutely destroyed on the big wheat farms where these birds 

 formerly were abundant and where they are now extinct or 



nearly so. In addition to food the briars afford safe protection 

 when a hawk or other enemy approached. I have seen a 

 line of telegraph poles across a big wheat stubble when there 

 appeared to be a hawk on nearly every pole, and there was 

 absolutely no place where a grouse could hide on the vast 

 prairie which extended to the horizon. Of course there were 

 no grouse. I found the sharp-tailed chicken very abundant 

 in the valley of the Rosebud, Montana, in the days when it 

 was hardly safe to shoot there on account of the Indians, but 

 the wild roses were also very abundant and afforded protection 

 to the birds and food in the winter, when they lived largely 

 upon the rose hips which could be seen above the snow. If we 

 give the natural enemies a good chance to eat them, by destroy- 

 ing the prairie chicken's nesting sites and covers, and if we 

 destroy absolutely their winter foods on vast areas, we must not 

 expect the birds to return to places where they have become 

 extinct because we have enacted laws prohibiting shooting. 



35 



