372 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



The testimony of sportsmen from all sections of the country is almost 

 unanimous that grouse were more abundant at the close of the shooting 

 season of 1906 than they had been for several seasons past, and therefore 

 ever} 7 one had good reason to anticipate that the open season of 1907 

 would be one of the best in several years. 



But soon after the shooting season of 1907 opened, communications 

 began to appear in local newspapers and sporting magazines, calling atten- 

 tion to an unusual scarcity of grouse in the several localities in which the 

 writers resided. As the season advanced, reports from different parts of 

 the northeast, indicating that the same condition of things existed in all 

 localities, were published so frequently that it soon became evident that 

 some calamity had overtaken the grouse between the close of the shooting 

 season of 1906 and the opening of that of 1907. These reports came not 

 only from all sections of the State of New York, including Long Island, 

 but also from the whole of New England, Southern Canada, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, and even as far west as Michigan and Minnesota. With 

 but two or three exceptions, hunters agreed in stating that the grouse 

 were extremely scarce in their vicinity in the fall of 1907, and in some 

 localities they seem to have been practically exterminated. 



Various theories have been propounded to account for this scarcity, 

 but these are for the most part merely conjectures. It is unfortunate, that 

 the remarkable diminution in numbers had not been noted much earlier 

 in the year and at the time the causes to which the scarcity is due were 

 at work, for we might then have been able to determine exactly what was 

 the trouble. However, enough data have been gathered on which to base 

 an explanation which may be accepted as substantially correct. 



Before coming to any conclusion, it will be well to take up and discuss 

 each of the several theories proposed, with the facts given to substantiate 

 them. 



The following theories have been offered as a possible explanation of 

 the grouse scarcity: 



1. The deep snow and extreme cold of the latter part of the winter 

 of 1906-7, killing off the old birds by freezing and starvation. 



2. The unusual abundance of foxes, goshawks, and other bird and 

 animal enemies. 



