28 THE RUFFED GROUSE L\ THE MARCH OF TIME 



keeper of the old school. Donald MarVirar"". under the a|)|)raisinn: eye of Walcott. aban- 

 doned small coops and enclosures in favor of wide ranges to raise four grouse out of seven 

 hatched in 1916. The foster mother, a game bantam, was wild and excitable, and the birds 

 required constant watching. It is interesting to find that a chiiunnrik is credited with killing 

 two youngsters, three weeks old. In addition to the insects and. later, the seeds and berries 

 which the chicks picked up. the usual feed of hard-boiled egg yolks and fine game meal or 

 cracker crumbs was provided. Given their freedom, one bird was killed in the kennels and 

 the other three disappeared early in September at the beginning of the '"crazy flight" period. 

 Only one ever returned. 



MacVicar's whole emphasis seems to have been on the maintenance of natural conditions. 

 The following vear. three clutches of eggs were placed under bantams in coops .SO yards 

 apart. The hillside was dotted with evergreens, birches, ferns, wild grasses and huckleberry 

 bushes — an ideal natural grouse habitat. Because the weather was wet and insects not too 

 |)lentiful. ant eggs and cottage cheese were added to the diet of the broods. As with [)heasants, 

 when a couple of days old. the birds were liberated from the coops in which the foster inolher 

 was still confined. All went well, when difficulties, characterized by diarrhea, resulted in 

 the death of most of the birds. MacVicar attributed this to stale food left in the vicinity 

 by a new assistant, though later experimenters have encountered the same trouble under a 

 variety of conditions. 



The eight birds that pulled through were placed in a special pen covering about three- 

 quarters of an acre. One bird escajied and another was killed by flying into the wire. Of 

 the six birds left, one of the three males began strutting in Scjjtember. So savagely did he 

 dominate the enclosure that the other two males had to be fed separately and eventually were 

 killed by him. The three hens nested and laid 31 eggs, from which 27 chicks were hatched. 

 Thus again were the polygamous and often domineering tendencies of the bird, in captivity, 

 demonstrated. 



There are many others who might also be mentioned, particularly Manross of Connecticut, 

 Herbert K. Job. and Harry Rogers, builder of New York's pioneer Sherburne State Game 

 Farm. All of the exijerimenls, however, followed more or less the same pattern. Foster 

 mothers or primitive incubation and brooding equipment were used, the eggs being largely 

 collected from wild nests, and the birds, when hatched, being allowed to run on the ground 

 in small enclosures containing more or less natural cover. Disease was only sporadically rec- 

 ognized as a cause of loss, particularly among the young chicks, and then it was traced back 

 to its probable source, the hen. Emphasis was placed largely upon providing the birds with 

 as nearly natural surroundings as possible and. particularly, with natural foods. Eggs were 

 usually removed from the nests when incubation was already well along and, therefore, most 

 of them hatched well. Usually the birds started to die almost immediately, however, and the 

 losses continued at a heavy rate until they were three or four weeks old. .Vfter that, a few 

 birds might lie lost from disease or the whole gi(iM|> wiped mil bv an epizootic. So primitive 

 were the conditions under which the grouse were raised and so consinning of lime and atten- 

 tion were the teihni(|iies required, that most experimentors ascribed their losses to prevent- 

 able causes of one kind or another, thus encouraging further trials. 



Now, however, the |)i(tiire changes. 



Poullrv science was making rapid strides, not only in perfecting incubation and brooding 

 equipment, but also in the field of nutrition. Pathologists, likewise, learned how to recog- 

 nize and prevent many serious avian diseases. The stage was set for someone to lift these 



