RUFFED GROUSE. 31 
ccespitiim) . Several species of the useful parasitic ichiieunions an; 
occasionally taken, and as an offset such foliage-destroying insects 
as sawflies, including adult forms of XniutftiK sp. and larvie of 
Lophi/rus sp. A peculiar long-bodied hynienopteron {Pclecinus 
sp.) also has been noted. The ({ueerest article of food, ])erhaps. is 
the galls pi'oduced by insects {C j/nipidd) . The ruffed grouse shows 
:i marked liking for these odd growths, which contain a few tiny 
larvie. The connnon semidomestic pheasant of England has the 
same taste. The grouse usually selects galls growing on oaks, often 
those produced by species of the genus Am pJiihoVrpfi. A bird shot 
in Lunenburg, Mass., in October had eaten 12 of these oak galls, 
.ilthough at that time other food was abundant. 
Few invertebrates other than insects were found in the investiga- 
tion of the food of the grouse. The miscellaneous animal food, how- 
ever, included representatives of such Myriapoda as the thousand-legs, 
of the order Drplopodcu and such Arachnida as harvest spiders 
(Phalangidce)^ jumping spiders (Attidce). and ground spiders 
{Lycosidd) ; snails of the genus Helix, and also shell-less snails, or 
slugs, including Limax sp. and Tehennophorus caroUnensis. 
Vegetable Food. 
The vegetable food examined consisted of 11.79 percent of seeds, 
28.32 percent of fruit, 48.11 percent of buds and leaves, and 0.86 
percent of miscellaneous vegetable matter. Grain was not found, 
though no doubt it would be eaten if obtainable. In fact. Major 
Bendire says that grouse procure it along roads from the droppings 
of horses." 
The seed element of the food is mast and miscellaneous seeds. The 
mast — 5.33 percent — consists of hazelnuts, beechnuts, hornbeam seeds, 
chestnuts, and acorns. The last, furnishing by all odds the 
largest supply, includes those of the scrub oak (Querrt/s lunia), scrub 
chestnut oak {Q. prinoides)^ white oak {Q. alba)^ and red oak {Q. 
rubra). Acorns are often sw^allowed whole, half a dozen to a dozen 
at a meal being not uncommon. Beechnuts also are taken whole, and 
from 20 to ()0 are sometimes found in a crop. 
Miscellaneous seeds make up 0.40 percent of the entire food. Like 
many other gallinaceous birds, the ruffed grouse takes some legumi- 
nous seeds, though fewer than might be expected. The kinds known 
to have been eaten are the tick-trefoil {Meihomia sp.), so abundant 
in the edge of woods frequented by grouse, and vetch {Vicid raro- 
Ihiiana). Winged seeds are often sampled, such as those of the hem- 
oLife Hist. N. A. Birds, [I], p. fi2, 1892. 
