KUFFED GROUSE. 25 



^iige grouse have been known to eat rose hips, greasewood leaves, and 

 the buds and foliage of the pulpy-leaved thorn." 



The young, of course, are more highly insectivorous than their 

 parents. A half-gi-own bird shot by Vernon Bailey had eaten, in 

 addition to vegetable food, some 300 ants. 



^luch remains to be learned about the diet of the sage grouse, 

 but enough is known to show that the bird lives principally on sage- 

 brush, and does no harm to agriculture. The value of the flesh as 

 food has been much discussed, but the general opinion is that when 

 the birds have not been feeding much upon sage the flesh is excellent. 

 A long-continued diet of sagebrush imparts to it a bitter, sagy 

 flavor. Hon. Theodore Roosevelt says : * 



However, I killed plenty of prairie chickens and sage hens for the pot, and 

 as the sage hens were still feeding largely upon crickets and grasshoppers, 

 and not exclusively on sage, they were just as good eating as the prairie 

 chickens. 



Sage grouse should be drawn as soon as they are killed, to prevent 

 the food in the stomach and intestines from tainting the flesh. The 

 sage grouse is of very gentle disposition, and probably would thrive 

 in captivity. Should it be domesticated, its size would make it a 

 most valuable fowl. E. S. Cameron, of Terry, Mont., writes to the 

 Biological Survey that he has made a beginning in this direction. 

 He secured eggs of the sage grouse, hatched them under a domestic 

 hen, and some of the chicks survived. 



THE KTTFFED GROUSE. 



{Bonasa um'beUus.)'' 



The ruffed grouse is widely distributed over the wooded parts of 

 the United States and Canada, and ranges from northern Georgia, 

 Mississippi, and Arkansas north to Hudson Bay and central Alaska, 

 and from ]Maine to the coast of Oregon. The different conditions of 

 environment prevailing over this great range have had their effect 

 in modifj'ing the colors of the ruffed grouse so that several forms may 

 be distinguished. The color differences between the bird of the south- 

 ern Rocky ^fountains and the Oregon ruffed grouse of the humid 

 west coast are especially marked. The latter is the most richly colored 

 of the North American grouse, and is notable for its handsomeh' 



a Wilson and Bonaparte, Am. Ornith., IV, p. 214. 1831. 



6 The Wilderness Hunter, p. 99, 1893. 



c The ruffed grouse is separable into four forms : The common bird of the 

 Eastern States (Bonum wnhellus) ; the Canadian ruffed grouse {B. n. togata) 

 of the spruce forests along the northern border, from Jlaine to British Cvlum- 

 bla ; the gray rufCed grouse (B. u. mnbelloides) of the Rocky Mountains, north 

 to Alaska; and the Oregon ruffed grouse (B. */. saiinl) of the humid west 

 coast, from northern California to British Columbia. 

 6568— No. 24—05 M i 



