






























HOSE who are interested in the 
T ruffed grouse and its mainte- 
nance are often to be heard ad- 
Wocating legislation to provide long 
‘closed seasons as the most effective 
‘means for bringing back to our cov- 
‘ers an abundance of this prized game 
bird. It is a curious fact, however, 
that, owing to man’s mischievous tam- 
pering with the so-called “balance of 
nature,” the protection of a 
long “verboten” period would 
afford no protection at all, in- 
jsofar as it could be measured 
by an increase in the coveys, 
and would, on the contrary, al- 
most surely result in doing the 
bird more harm than good. At 
‘the end of a ten-year closed sea- 
‘son we might find that we actu- 
‘ally had fewer grouse than at 
its beginning. It is a pretty 
well recognized principle among 
naturalists and conservation- 
lists that, subject as he now is 
to the restrictions of game 
laws, man, in his character of 
‘predatory animal, is far less 
‘destructive than are the legions 
‘of natural enemies: the foxes, 
hawks, owls, weasels, preying 
thousecats and other vermin. 
‘To the valuable game creatures 
like the ruffed grouse the hu- 
man animal is less damaging 
‘than his associations and influ- 
‘ences. Wherever mankind moves 
he is accompanied by a vast 
and stealthy army of parasites 
‘and irregulars. The cohorts of 
ithis vermin army operate in a cease- 
less and destructive guerilla warfare 
which inflicts losses upon both the le- 
gitimate forces. 
Observe a single settler taking up 
his abode in a virgin Canadian forest. 
His first effort is to fell trees and clear 
land. Every brush heap immediately 
‘becomes a vermin fortress; the set- 
a cabin, his sheds, and even the 
$ 
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Bvtents Copyrighted by Forest and Stream P 
FOREST 
Vol. XCV, No. 10 

By MAJOR H. P. SHELDON 
clearings offer aid and shelter to nu- 
merous bloodthirsty little assassins 
which is denied to the grouse and his 
ilk. The weasel finds complete protec- 
tion in a man-built brush heap, or 
among the foundation stones of house 
STREAM 
October, 1925 
“Principally Grouse” 
—Tho a Great Deal Is Said About Cover Dogs, Conservation, 
and the Ethical Side of Field Sports—Part One 
falls under the teeth and talons of his 
merciless protegees. Man’s greatest 
crime against valuable small game is 
not that he preys upon it with his re- 
markably effective weapons, but that 
he fails to work proportionate destruc- 

tion upon the vermin which increases 
under his unconscious protection. 
If every applicant for a hunting li- 
cense were required to produce evidence 
to show that he had destroyed 
a certain number of owls, 
hawks, red squirrels, etc., before 
he could be granted a license we 
would only be practicing the 
and barn. So, also, with the rats, 
while the seemingly innocent clearings 
are ideal hunting country for the pi- 
rate hawks and foxes. Invariably, too, 
Major Sheldon is Fish and Game Commis- 
sioner of Vermont. A man well schooled in 
the ways of wild creatures, like al! lovers of most reasonable and_ sensible 
the New England hills he professes a special kind of game protection. Some 
interest in the ruffed grouse. This paragon of reaieralienet doubt, immenn 
, , 
upland game birds he has followed in the 
Autumn, with dog and gun, for many seasons, 
Thus he has the sportsman’s viewpoint and dis- 
cusses field tactics and shooting incidents in a 
delightful manner. 
Because he wanted to know, first hand, how 
the grouse lives and multiplies, its likes and 
dislikes, and the intimate secrets of its social 
life, he has sought the bird in the nuptial sea- 
ately pin this idea as quite im- 
possible of application— and 
perhaps it is on this side of the 
water—but the scheme has been 
at work for several centuries in 
Europe and has proved very 
effective there. 
son, throughout the summer and during the 
HE first consideration of an 
English sportsman who has 
acquired a shooting right on an 
estate is to see that the place is 
provided with a head keeper and 
a sufficient number of assis- 
tants. Their primary duty is to 
destroy vermin. Many a keeper 
has been forced to resort to the 
want ad columns because of the 
quantity of vermin that turned 
out of his beats on the days 
when the proprietor entertained 
a party of “guns.’”’ The British 
sportsman, who is generally a wealthy 
man who owns a private preserve, hires 
his keepers to do for his game what the 
American with common shooting privi- 
leges can best do for himself. It may 
be advanced that the usual hunting li- 
cense fee which is collected in a major- 
ity of the states is intended for this 
purpose, but it is a sad fact that the 
total hunting license fees collected an- 
579 
time of snows. So he has the naturalist’s 
angle. 
But, primarily, Major Sheldon is a conserva- 
tionist—that is his life work. From a wealth 
of experience he has worked out sound con- 
servation principles, which, combined with nat- 
ural history and reminiscences, constitute one 
of the most comprehensive, valuable and read- 
able articles on the grouse FOREST AND 
STREAM has yet published. The second and 
concluding part of “Principally Grouse’’ will 
appear in the November issue. 
the settler has added a curse or two 
to those already present, for he brings 
with him rats and mice and their sin- 
gularly ineffective “natural enemy,” 
the house cat—most deadly and per- 
sistent killer of them all. 
HE settler himself destroys some 
game, but its quantity is inconsid- 
erable when compared to that which 
ub, Co. 
