164 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



of the grouse, not directly, perhaps, but because by 

 constant attacks the breeding stock is kept down so low 

 that when conditions arise even slightly unfavorable to 

 the species, and a few birds are swept away, the breed- 

 ing stock is so reduced that not enough birds are reared 

 the next season to replenish the covers. 



The widest differences of opinion about this matter 

 exist between sportsmen and naturalists of experience. 

 So good a field naturalist as Nap. A. Comeau, in his 

 recent book, entitled "Life and Sport on the North 

 Shore," says of the ruffed grouse : 



"In some years they are abundant for a time and 

 then disappear. I have noticed that heavy sleet in 

 winter will sometimes drive them away from certain 

 tracts of country. Since 1905 they have been pretty 

 scarce all over the country (the north shore of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence). I think this must be due to some 

 kind of contagious disease, something similar, proba- 

 bly, to the 'grouse disease' of Scotland. There is no 

 other way of explaining their scarcity over such an 

 immense extent of territory. Where the country has 

 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 cannot be put down 

 to excessive shooting. As to natural enemies, they do 

 not seem to have been any more numerous here than 

 elsewhere. Last year (1908) I was over six weeks in 

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



