THE GAME BREEDER 



77 



THE ENEMIES OF THE GROUSE OF THE OPEN 



COUNTRY. 



By J. P. Turner 



Prairie Grouse. 



What are the forms of the destructive 

 agencies which are waging such war tipon. 

 the grouse ranks? By leaving man out 

 entirely for the present, we do not have to 

 seek far to find them. First of all, there 

 are the natural predatory foes, the gos- 

 hawk and allied species, the great-horned 

 owl, crow, coyote, fox, skunk, weasel, 

 etc. Now if these species which prey 

 upon the grouse and their eggs were 

 maintained in their proper balance in con- 

 junction with other species, it would not 

 be reasonable to say that they could be 

 the means of depleting the country of 

 prairie chicken, else why did they not do 

 so ages and ages ago ? Only such species 

 as have become abnormally plentiful or 

 which have overreached in comparative 

 numbers the places nature long ago al- 

 lotted to them, or those which have suf- 

 fered abnormal loss of the natural i^rey 

 which was originally assigned to them, 

 could possible attack grouse so unremit- 

 tingly as to reduce them to their present 

 numbers. Several isolated species might 

 be brought under this head ; but could 

 these alone, unaided by some greater de- 

 structive agency, wreak such havoc? To 

 say the least, it is improbable. 



There is no doubt that the crow has 

 increased under man's influence, and the 

 coyote is becoming more plentiful of late 

 years, while his natural prey, the bush- 

 rabbit, has temporarily become scarcer. 

 Of the other predatory species mentioned, 

 it can be said that, with the possible ex- 

 ception of the goshawk, they have re- 

 mained in approximately the proper places 

 nature long ago intended them to occupy. 

 Some seasons they will individually ap- 

 pear in increased or decreased numbers, 

 but not sufficiently increased at any time 

 as to become a permanent pest. 



The Crow. 



In any newly-settled country, where 

 climatic changes, variations in physical 

 features and altered conditions of life 

 are directly the result of man's actions, 

 there is a corresponding cxolution of 

 change among the wild creatures peculiar 

 to that country. Dififerent species show 

 a marked and abnormal increase or de- 

 crease as the new conditions favor or re- 

 tard them. Before the surmounting in- 

 fluence of settlement, the buffalo van- 

 ished. The elk is only to be found in a 



