found in the woods and adjacent fields will be added to the list. 

 The beetles seem to be preferred, but Dr. Judd says the grouse 

 he shot in September, in New Hampshire, were feeding largely 

 on red-legged grasshoppers, which were abundant in the pas- 

 tures where the birds foraged. The vegetable food consists 

 largely of seeds, fruit, buds and leaves. Mast, including hazle- 

 nuts, beechnuts, chestnuts and acorns are staple foods, the 

 acorns being the largest supply in many regions. Acorns of the 

 scrub oak, scrub chestnut oak, white oak and red oak are 

 swallowed whole, and I have often found the grouse abundant in 

 the scrub oaks on Long Island, New York, and in other regions 

 where there were few or no large trees. The ruffed grouse un- 

 doubtedly eats grain and often procures it along woodland roads, 

 where it resorts to dust and to feed on the abundant berries. 



More than one-fourth of the yearly food of this bird is fruit. 

 Its diet includes the hips of the wild rose, grapes, partridge ber- 

 ries, thorn apples, wild crab apples, cultivated apples, winter- 

 green berries, bayberries, blueberries, huckleberries, black- 

 berries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, sarsaparilla ber- 

 ries, and others; wild and cultivated cherries, plums, haws, 

 sumacs, including the poison sumac and poison ivy, which are 

 taken with immunity. 



Sportsmen are well aware of the fondness of this grouse for 

 wild grapes and apples, and they often find them in places 

 where grapes are plentiful and in old fruit orchards, especially 

 on abandoned farms. The wild rose hips and sumacs are 

 excellent winter foods because they can be obtained above the 

 snow. Wild and cultivated sunflowers furnish excellent food, 

 and many other fruits and seeds of varying importance are on 

 the ruffed grouse's bill of fare. 



Birch, poplar, willow, laurel and other buds are eaten by the 

 ruffed grouse, and the budding, practiced for the most part 

 during the winter, enables it to survive the severe winters of 

 the Northern states and Canada, when other foods are buried 

 in deep snows. The several species of birch buds are a staple. 



There is no better bird on the table than a ruffed grouse 

 shot in September or October, excepting, possibly, the prairie 



46 



