RUFFED GROUSE. 25 
Sage grouse have Ihhmi known lo cat rose hips, greasewood leaves, and 
the buds and foliage of the i)ul])y-leaved thorn." 
The young, of course, are more highly insectivorous than their 
parents. A half-grown bird shot l)y Vernon Hailev had eaten, in 
addition to vegetable food, some 800 ants. 
Much remains to be learned about the diet of the sage gi-ouse, 
but enough is known to show that the bird lives princi})ally on sage- 
l)rush. and does no harm to agriculture. The value of the flesh as 
food has been much discussed, but the general opinion is that when 
the birds have not been feeding nmch upon sage the flesh is excellent. 
A long-continued diet of sagebrush imparts to it a bitter, sagy 
Havor. Hon. Theodore Roosevelt says:'^ 
However. I killed plenty of prairie chickens and saj^^e hens for the i)ot. and 
as the sage hens were still feeding largely iiix)n crickets and grasshoppers, 
and not exclusively on sage, they were just as good eating as the prairie 
chickens. 
Sage grouse should be drawn as soon as they are killed, to prevent 
the food in the stomach and intestines from tainting the flesh. The 
sage grouse is of very gentle disposition, and probably would thrive 
in captivity. Should it be domesticated, its size would make it a 
most valuable fowl. E. S. Cameron, of Terry, Mont., writes to the 
Biological Survey that he has made a beginning in this direction. 
He secured eggs of the sage grouse, hatched them under a domestic 
hen, and some of the chicks survived. 
THE RUFFED GROUSE. 
(Boiiasa ii)nhrlli(.s.)c 
The ruffed grouse is wideh' distributed over the wooded parts of 
the United States and Canada, and ranges from northern (leorgia. 
^lississippi, and Arkansas north to Hudson Bay and central Alaska, 
and from Maine to the coast of Oregon. The different conditions of 
environment prevailing over this great range have had their effect 
in modifying the colors of the ruffed grouse so that several forms may 
be distinguished. The color differences between the bird of the south 
ern Rocky Mountains and the Oregon ruff'ed grouse of the humid 
west coast are especially marked. The latter is the most richly colored 
of the North American grouse, and is notable for its handsomely 
« Wilson and Bonaparte, Am. Ornith., IV, p. 214. 1881. 
' t>Thv Wilderness Hunter, p. 01). ISiKi. 
f The ruffed grouse is sei)arable into four forms : The common bird of the 
Eastern States (Bonasa unihcllus) ; the Canadian rufftnl grouse (/?. u. tofjatu) 
of the spruce forests along the northern l>order, from Maine to British Colum- 
bia ; the gray ruffetl grouse {B. u. umhclloidcs) of the Rocky Mountains, north 
to Alaska; and the Oregon ruffetl grouse {B. ii. sabini) of the humid west 
coast, from northern California to British Columbia. 
G5G8— No. 24—05 m i 
