RUFFED GROUSE. 29 
where grouse are decreasing under persistent gunning the open season 
shouhl he further limited or even eliminated for a ])erio(l of years" 
until the hirds have recovered something of their former numbers. 
A reasonable limit to the day's bag should be set by law. Kansas, 
Maine, and AVisconsin restrict the number to 15; Montana and 
Oregon to 10, and Ohio to 0. Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Con- 
necticut have a limit of 5 grouse per day to a gun, and in the latter 
State, as well as in New York, no more than 80 can be taken in a 
3^ear. By similar laws other States can aid in the preservation of 
the bird. 
The grouse in captivity often becomes tame. Sometimes, indeed, it 
takes kindly to the henhouse. It has laid in captivity, and its eggs 
found in the woods have been hatched under domestic hens, but thus 
far nothing like successful grouse culture has been approximated, 
though there appears to be no reason why under proper conditions 
it should not be successful. Comprehensive knowledge of the bird's 
food habits should assist in solving the problem. 
rOOD HABITS. 
The food habits of the ruffed grouse have been investigated in con- 
nection with the present paper by the examination of 208 stomachs 
and crops. This material represents food taken in every month, but 
chiefly in the colder half of the year. New York supplied more 
material than any other section; Canada, Pennsylvania, and Massa- 
chusetts came next; and Nebraska, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, 
New Hampshire, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
South Dakota each contributed a smaller part. Analysis of the food 
showed 10.92 percent of animal matter and 89.08 percent of vegetable 
matter. The animal food is almost all insects. The vegetable food 
consists of seeds, 11.79 percent; fruit, 28.32 percent; leaves and buds, 
48.11 percent, and miscellaneous vegetable matter, 0.86 j^ercent. The 
insect food proper includes grasshoppers, 0.78 percent ; caterpillars, 
1.15 percent; beetles, 4.67 percent, and miscellaneous insects, 3.86 per- 
cent. Some miscellaneous animal matter, made up of spiders and 
snails, is also eaten. The ruffed grouse eats a somewhat smaller pro- 
portion of insects than the bobwhite, but, like it, feeds on them to a 
large extent in the breeding season. 
Insect Food. 
Grouse shot by the writer at Chocorua, N. H., in September, 1898, 
were feeding largely on the red-legged grasshopper {Melcmoplus 
o In Ohio the season has heen closed until 1908, in Illinois until 1909. and )\\ 
Missouri until 1910. 
