THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



151 



In Minnesota in 

 1920, under a similar 

 closed season, but with 

 larger bag limits, the 

 kill was unparalleled, 

 with a total exceeding 

 500,000 grouse. 



THE grouse: thrived 



IN CLEARINGS 



Many might natur- 

 ally think that this 

 wonderful increase 

 was wholly due to the 

 previous closed sea- 

 sons. While undoubt- 

 edly making such a 

 showing possible, in 

 the writer's opinion 

 the result was prima- 

 rily due to another 

 distinct and, fortu- 

 nately, permanent 

 cause, namely, a gradual and favorable 

 change in environment during some thirty 

 years preceding. 



By reason of overshooting and un- 

 favorable weather, the grouse of Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and western 

 Ontario had been greatly reduced, only a 

 scattered bird being found here and there. 

 With a two years' closed season the 

 remnant had an opportunity to establish 

 itself in the thousands of clearings where 

 few birds had ever had a chance before. 

 The fact that one pair and their offspring 

 would produce some 200 birds during the 

 period they were thus protected indicates 

 how the grouse was able to spread quickly 

 through the entire region. 



BIRDS NOW SHOT ON THE WING 



The daily limit of five birds has re- 

 sulted in a new form of sport in northern 

 Michigan. Accustomed in this region to 

 killing the grouse on the ground or in the 

 trees, the hunters soon found the limit 

 of five birds might be reached shortly 

 after discovering a well-filled covey, and 

 the day's sport ended in a moment. 

 Therefore, for the first time, many be- 

 gan shooting on the wing, using thou- 

 sands of shells without much damage to 

 the fleeing birds, but greatly expanding 

 the day's sport. 



"A dead bird tells no tales," but the 

 many survivors of this aerial bombard- 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 

 SAME WHITE FAWN AND COMPANION IN FALL, WHEN EACH 

 HAS LOST THE WHITE SPOTS (SEE PAGE 183) 



ment have received a greater education 

 regarding the use of gun than any of 

 their predecessors, many finally acquiring 

 the alertness and caution of the grouse 

 of the Eastern coverts. 



PECULIAR HABITS OF THE GROUSE 



In the temperate months the grouse 

 has an excellent choice of food, consist- 

 ing of a great variety of berries, small 

 fruit, seeds, buds, clover, beechnuts, 

 grasshoppers, and a multitude of young, 

 tender leaves. In the winter one wonders 

 at their survival ; for now the fall flight 

 of the robins completely exhausts the 

 berries, which were wont to linger and 

 ripen well into winter, compelling the 

 grouse to depend largely upon yellow 

 birch buds, with many a forced meal on 

 an evergreen. 



Fortunately, whenever the temperature 

 is far below zero the sky is usually clear 

 and the grouse are active and uncon- 

 cerned, but if the days and nights are 

 dark and cold or the air filled with merci- 

 less pellets, they have the habit of plung- 

 ing from a higher branch head foremost 

 into deep snowdrifts, where a foot below 

 the surface the heat and weight of the 

 body form a globular retreat, in which 

 they remain comfortably until the storm 

 clears or hunger forces an exit. 



Once when seated in a tree watching 

 for deer, several days after the conclusion 



