Ditribution-    The area included in this report is a strip 
two miles wide and ten miles long with Babcook at the east end and 
Jaokson county at the west erd. About 15 per cent of the area is 
inhabitd ran-e during the period of the day open to hunting. The 
uninhabited range inoludes: 
1. Ope meadow with no trees. 
2.  Swamps with heavy grass. This part of the range is used 
at night as a roosting site. 
3. Open peat marsh burned bare by fire. Sometimes used for 
roosttg. 
4.  Solid Jackpine. 
The heaviest stocked ranges for shar-tailed grouse are aspen 
thickets in the peat marshes, oak ridgee, and white birch-chokecherry, 
ptnoherry thickets along ditches. The heaviest stocked range for 
prairie oeickens is oak ridge where the oaks are not dense and where 
open grassland is nearby. Ruffed grouse were found in the heavy 
oak forest on the river bottom and in denae aspen-alder-white birch 
thickets, but very Tew ruffed grouse were shot compared to theother two 
-pecies. 
Sh to    - Very few of the leaves had fallen. In central Wisconsin 
the oaks were red and purple and the aspen bright yellow, making the 
m-rsh country look its best. In the oak woods where mot of the 
shar--tiled grouse and prairie chicken wre flushed, It was necessary 
to shoot before the birds raised above the branches. In general there 
was an open space of about 20 feet between the branches and the grund. 
Punters that were good snap shooters had good hunting. The average 
hunter either shot too soon or too late. When flushed the birds gen- 
erally flew across the open marsh to the next oak ridge. 
 
MQSE HUNTING AT BkBCOCK 
October 1-6, 1932                             y   V~