THE SCARCITY OF RUFFED GROUSE IN 1907. 375 



ever saw. Thev harassed the birds until April. One day in March I heard 

 something strike the stable. I went out and saw a goshawk stoop and 

 pick up a grouse that had flown against the stable window. I know of 

 five that they drove against houses and killed within a short distance of 

 my place. I have seen them (goshawks) three times before — once in 

 fifteen years, say — but only one or two at a time." 



William Dearden. Springfield, Mass., writes in Forest and Stream, 

 December 28, 1907: " Last fall and winter we had an unusually large 

 flight of goshawks. They were feeding on grouse all winter. Then came 

 a bad breeding season, followed bv an overabundance of foxes. * * * 

 I examined the stomachs of about thirty goshawks last season; twenty- 

 five of them contained grouse, three poultry, and two were empty. A 

 pair of goshawks can take more grouse out of a patch of woodland in a 

 few days than two or three hunters could in the entire open season. I 

 think the fox does the most damage to the hen bird on the nest and the 

 young birds before they can fly." 



The flight of goshawks during the fall and winter of 1906-7 was one 

 of the most remarkable on record. As a rule these birds of the far north 

 are considered a rare winter visitant within our borders, but occasionally 

 they come down in fairly large numbers, having been forced to leave their 

 customary winter haunts because of some unusual scarcity of food. The 

 following extract from an article written before the 1st of March, 1907, 

 and. therefore, before the coming scarcity of grouse was suspected, is par- 

 ticularly interesting. It was written by Mr. Ruthven Deane of Chicago, 

 one of the foremost ornithologists of this country, and appeared in the 

 Auk for April, 1907 (Vol. XXIV, No. 2), under the title "The Unusual 

 Abundance of the American Goshawk {Accipiter atricapillus)" : 



' We have this season (1906-7) been visited by an unusual influx 

 of these bold robbers of our game. * * * Messrs. Angel and Cash, 

 taxidermists, Providence, R. I., have had a very extended experience this 

 season with the goshawk, and with their usual appreciation of the value 

 of scientific records, have kept careful and accurate data of the sixty-five 

 specimens which passed through their hands between October 27, 1906. 

 and February 12, 1907. All of these hawks were received from twenty- 

 two towns within a radius of from three to thirtv miles from Providence, 



