EARLY EFFORTS AT ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION 



25 



one of the feline predators. The court held that the cat was a wild animal and therefore not 

 entitled to protection by law except when treated in an inhumane manner. The doctor was 

 released. Historians add that, thereafter, cats passed through Pine Hill, "only on the run". 



But not so with the indignant neighbors, some of whom, by now, were convinced that the 

 only good grouse was a dead one. Feeling that the birds desired natural surroundings, a 

 spruce tree on the Hodge lawn, 30 feet tall, was completely enclosed with wire and the seven 

 survivors of the rearing season just passed were placed therein. With October's falling leaves 

 came frosty nights, during one of which some acorns, filled with poison, were mysteriously 

 tossed in the enclosure. After eating them, all the birds promptly died. The papers came 

 out with articles about poison-fiends, but the cats were avenged and science suffered accord- 

 ingly. 



Still determined and undeterred. Dr. Hodge continued his experiments for three more 

 years. In keeping with all attemijts made before or after, success always lay "just around 

 the corner". In 1907. his perseverance and good judgment in handling the experiments se- 

 cured from the Carnegie Institute of Washington a grant of $,500 to further the work. That 

 year, too, convinced that bantam hens were temperamentally unreliable and likely carriers of 

 disease as well, he took a long step forward by raising a small group of birds under the 

 primitive brooders of that day. 



The following year, grouse nests were extremely hard to find. Only one was collected. 

 Though ten youngsters were hatched, seven were killed while feeding on striped bugs. From 

 the adults of the preceding year, one hen laid 12 eggs, all of which proved to be infertile. 

 Though he must have had some misgivings, as late as June, 1909, Dr. Hodge was still at- 

 tempting to secure eggs from as wide a territory as possible "to learn to what extent geo- 

 graphical conditions enter into the life of the bird". l\'o eggs were forthcoming, however, 

 and he was forced, regretfully, to turn to other fields. 



It is significant to note that, at the end of seven years of careful experimentation, he felt 

 fully equipped, both as regards experience and techniques, to breed and raise partridge suc- 

 cessfully in ca|itivitv. Food, both for young and old bir<ls, seemed to be one of the liniiting 

 factors. The number of eggs produced by hand-raised birds, as well as their fertility, he be- 

 lieved, were dei)en(lcnl upon it. How often thereafter, careful exi)erimpnlors reached the same 

 threshold of success, only to find it eluding their grasp! 



Contemporary with Hodge was the work of Arthur Merrill'", carried on in the cramped 

 quarters of a small trout hatchery in Sutton. Superintendent Merrill was forced to divide 

 his time between the regular work of the hatchery and attempts to rear pheasants, quail, 

 ducks, geese, black grouse, capercailzie, heath hen and Furopean gray partridge, in addi- 

 tion to ruffed grouse. Though published records are blank. Merrill tells us* that at least 

 one clutch of grouse was raised in 1904 or 1905. Work commenced in earnest in 1906. when 

 87 eggs were brought in from wild nests. Part of these were placed under the unreliable 



* Merrill, A., personal Icller to the authors. 









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