APRIL, 1900. BENNETTS— FOOD OF RUFFED GROUSE. 
105 
Notes on the Food of the Ruffed Grouse^ 
By W. J. BENNETTS, 
Facts bearing on the relation of animals to their food supply 
are interesting to the student of natural history, as they assist in 
solving many of the problems connected with animal distribution, 
and help in determining the influence which a species has upon 
the existence of other species with which it comes in contact. The 
search for food is one of the principal activities in an animal's ex- 
istence, occupying no inconsiderable part of its entire life, and 
being intimately connected with its general habits and frequently 
with its structure and external form. Hence investigations con- 
cerning an animal's food, generally also reveal and explain many 
interesting facts concerning its life history, and its morphology. 
In the case of birds, the necessity for food and the habits re- 
sulting therefrom, have given rise to influences that reach out in 
many directions. The usual result is to reduce the number of in- 
dividuals in the animal and plant world. To counteract this effect 
among animals, the interesting phenomena classed as mimicry 
and protective coloration have been evolved, while plants have ac- 
complished the same end by greatly increasing their seed-bearing 
capacity and by special methods of propagation. The food habits 
of birds have also the opposite effect on plant life — of tending to 
increase the number of individuals. Fruit eating birds, for ex- 
ample, are agents of seed dispersion, while honey feeders are em- 
ployed to efifect the cross-fertilization of flowers. 
The food supply of man may also be affected by birds, often 
prejudicially in the case of predaceous and fish or fruit-eating 
ones, while in the case of insectivorous and seed-eating birds the 
result may be beneficial. 
The food habits of the species to be considered in this paper — 
the rufifed grouse, Bonasa iinibellus — are especially interesting, as 
it is a resident or non-migratory species, and the character of its 
aliment must necessarily vary according to the season, and be 
characterized by a variety greater than is that of most migratory 
birds. With the latter, a radical change of diet is avoided in the 
fall, by joining in the southward migration, while the spring or 
northward migration is so timed that a species finds its customary 
