The Newtown bee., 1909-06-04
The Newtown Bee.
 .IewtNwn, Friday, June 1, 1909,
HOME NEWS. THE GROUSE ENEMY.
Schuyleryille. N V

schuylerVille. N. Y,,
 April 10, 1908.
 Editor Forest and Stream: 1 have read numberless articles on the scar. city Of ruited grouse, and some wild suggestions as to how to remedy the FNme, but tLe writers dg not seem { |, understand the subject. About once ia six or seven yeaf+ the hares die fl, the North. When this occurs, the black brant that arrive off Cape Hat. te"as iG November will be all old birds, The natives will tell you the eggs were eaten by the Indians north. About Decelfbor 2S tWithin ts O days of that tlmel large blue hawk called the goshawk will arrive in Northern New York. He is the God appointed death warrant of the ruifed grouse and at once gets busy. He covers q wide territory and re. quires much food to keep him in the zero weather. The grouse grow scarce to the point of exterminatiop. They have no holes to go to and the lumberman has removed their shel- ter-the pine. With the passing of the grouse, the hawk appears in the Jarnyard and later in the taxiderm- ist's window. Early in April a frac- tiCn of .heir numbers return 10 the north-for they cannot stand warm weather-to return the following winter and have their numbers still further reduced. A third winter
 '""e 'S enough food in the north, so they do not come till the hares die again, as the hares breed to fast to ne eXterminated by them. While they are with us, the foxes clean up tho W n9S and the toncs of the arouse they eat, and person seeing the tracks and feathers would say fox killed the grouse, but he did not
 l caught about 30 hawks in the winter of 1907. About 20 had grouse in them, one had gray squirrel, the rest were empty. In 1908 I got six, but none this winter, so we are at the end of this visitation. There will not be any more poor hatchine sea sons till the grsilawk comes again.
 l have often wondered that the sportsmen of the state did not sug- gest that the game wardens do some thing more practical for the grouse thar thcy nrw ( The wardens have about stopped market shooting, and the license has cleaned the woods of vol ths and foreigners The shooting license law is the best thing for ,he farme s and sportsmen that could have happened. It cleaned up the human destroyers.
 There are only two kinds nf hawks that live on grouse, and of the 5000 hawks that I have trapped in the last 10 years, over half have been the variety that live on chicken grouse. The grouse is a fine game bird and ,.oes no damages nd it is too bad that he does not get more practical guar dianship. There are three things that we read about. One the poor breeding season; there has never been a poor breeding season in northern New York since I lived here and I do not believe there is any, where else in a good grouse country. Another is the hard winters that are said to kill the grouse. No winter has been hard enough to kill grouse he'e, and the weather gets to 25 de- grees below sometimes. As to the ignorant person that wants to save the grouse by shortening the hunting season, we hear good ueal more rom him than his intelligence war rants. It is too bad that the practical friends of the grouse could not get | he game wardens interested in this poor bird so they would dc something ,or tm. They have saved him from he market hunter only for the bene- it of the hawk. Grouse could be made permanently abundant at an expenditure of $20OO a year by the It would not be a cent | piece on the birds killed, and they would get it back and more in ad- litional licenses. It is very easy to rap hawks. Grouse should now in ease very fast for two or three years. The bounty that the fur buyer has placed on ground vermin should help ave a few eggs and nesting brids. B.
 Lvovx, Topoe% opJ Cfxoox,