38 



GROUSE AND WILD TUEKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



High-bush cranberry (Vihurnum 



opulus). 

 Mountain cranberry (Yacclnium 



vitis-idwa). 

 Snowberry {Symphoricarpus sp.)- 

 Feverwort ( Triosteum perfolia- 



tum). 

 Black huckleberry ( Gaylussaoia 



resinosa). 

 Black alder (Ilex verticillata) . 

 Flowering dogwood (Gornus flor- 



ida). 



Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) . 

 Cornel (Gomus paniculata). 

 Silky cornel {Gomus amonum). 

 Pepperidge (Nyssa sylvatica). 

 Mulberry (Moms rubra). 

 Bittersweet (Gelastrtts scandens). 

 Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.). 

 Barberry (Berieris vulgaris). 

 Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus 

 guinquefoUa) . 



The seeds of most of these berries pass through the digestive tract 



unharmed and are capable of germinating. Thus the grouse assists 



in planting many fruiting trees and shrubs, the heavy seeds of which 



must be disseminated mainly through the agency of animals that feed 



on them. 



Food of the Young. 



The young of most birds are far more insectivorous than adults, a 

 statement that applies to gallinaceous birds, though to a less extent 

 than to passerines. More than 95 percent of the diet of eight grouse 

 chicks examined, none of which was more than a fourth grown, was 

 insects. Seven adults collected in the breeding season had consumed 

 only 30 percent of insects. Newly hatched chicks eat the largest 

 proportion of insects. As they grow older they gradually become 

 more frugivorous and granivorous. Three chicks, only a day or 

 two old, collected by Prof. S. A. Forbes, at Waukegan, 111., June 9, 

 1876, proved to have been exclusively insectivorous. They had eaten 

 cutworms, grasshoppers, Lampyrid beetles, ants {Tetramorium 

 ccespitum) , parasitic wasps, buflfalo tree hoppers, and spiders {Attidce 

 and Phalangidce) . A grouse about a week out of the shell, collected 

 by F. H. King, had eaten a white grub, 7 spiders {Phalangidw) , 

 and 13 caterpillars." It should be noted, therefore, that the ruffed 

 grouse, though only slightly insectivorous when adult, as a chick 

 destroys great numbers of insects, and deserves much more credit 

 from farmers than it usually receives. 



THE SPBXJCE GROUSE. 



(Ganachites canadensis.)^ 



The spruce, or Canada, grouse inhabits the transcontinental conif- 

 erous forests from the northern border of the United States, east of 



« Trans. Wis. Ag. Soc, vol. 24, pp. 472-473, 1880. 



6 The spruce grouse (Ganachites canadensis) is separated into three geographic 

 forms, of which two occur within our territory ; these are the common spruce 

 grouse (G. c. canace) of the northern border from Maine to Minnesota, and the 

 .Alaska spruce grouse (C. c. osgoodi) of Alaska and western Canada. 



