Late Autumn Food of the Sharp-Tailed Grouse in Western Nebraska

Abstract

This article treats of the food of the Sharp-tailed Grouse in western Nebraska during late autumn, following a season of severe drought. Early in November, 1934, an illegal shipment of 56 game birds was seized by authorities at Truckee, California. It is believed that these birds had been shot late in October, probably in the vicinity of Broadwater, Morrill County, Nebraska. On December 22, 1934, these birds were delivered to the Department of Entomology of the College of Agriculture, University of Nebraska, by Frank B. O'Connell, Chief Conservation Officer and Secretary of the Game, Forestation, and Parks Commission of Nebraska, for purposes of dissection and analysis of their food. The shipment included 29 Sharp-tailed Grouse (Pedioecetes phasianellus jamesi), many of them birds of the year, analyses of which are here reported upon. All of these birds were frozen solidly when delivered. They were allowed to thaw and relax, when the crops and gizzards were dissected out by Watson E. Beed, who preserved their contents in separately numbered vials of 70 per cent alcohol. In analyzing the contents of the crops and gizzards, the procedure was as follows: All plant leaves were separated from the saturated mixture in the 70 per cent alcohol, identified in that state if possible, and then set aside to dry. The alcohol was poured off from the remainder of the mixture, and this residue also dried. The dry contents of each crop and gizzard were then separated into their constituent elements or foods, the weights of each of which were taken separately, to 0.001 gram. Broadwater, Morrill County, where,