462 ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF GROUSE 



of escape needed by all save the dominant bird in each pen, two or three small pines or 

 hemlocks may be cut and stacked butt up in a convenient corner. Allen found that a series 

 of boards each 10 inches high and placed on edge and crosswise at 4-foot intervals helped to 

 maintain the established pen society by permitting the setting up of several territories there- 

 in over which individual birds might exercise dominance. This materially increases the 

 chances that each bird in the pen will find among the several communities thus established, 

 one or another into which it can fit. 



To many this may seem like drawing a fine distinction, for the birds, of course, do not 

 always keep to the particular section of the pen where they find their companions and sur- 

 roundings most congenial. Nevertheless, when chased, their own part of tlie pen offers a 

 haven into which a combative outsider is often loath to continue pursuit. 



The matter of dominance, as discussed in Chapter II, is of considerable importance, for 

 each year adults of both sexes are lost as breeders through being harried by more aggressive 

 birds as to acquire an inferiority complex. Some birds are killed outright in the process and 

 many are severely scalped in attempting to escape. The size of the over-wintering loss depends 

 largely on maintaining the social balance in the pens. Of course there will also be an occa- 

 sional death from accident or from chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, blackhead or ulcera- 

 tive enteritis. 



A wired-in wintering pen 25 feet x 110 feet built around a service room (figure 33) and 

 designed to hold 300 full-winged grouse comfortably, was put in operation at the Research 

 Center in 1937. Here each bird has a relatively large choice of companions and of com- 

 munities. Heavy cotton netting is stretched along the sides to ease the impact if a flying bird 

 should misjudge distances. Most grouse quickly learn to alight before reaching the netting. 

 The daily flights up and down the pen seem to furnish a good conditioning routine. 



Foods and Feeding Techniques. The food, too, during the overwintering period is im- 

 portant, for the young birds have just completed the strain of growing up and the adults 

 the stress of moulting. Each must build up resistance and reproductive capacity for the breed- 

 ing season to come. Nor is it necessary to resort to special foods augmented by a variety of 

 the items wild grouse normally consume at this time of year. The composition of the feeding 

 formula currently (1942) in use at the Research Center is indicated in figure 41. All of these 

 may be purchased at reasonable prices from many commercial feed concerns. 



Mash, in pelleted form, and grain are fed in low, reel-type troughs placed so as to be 

 protected from the weather. 



In the wintering pen at the Center all feeding and servicing, as well as the catching of 

 the birds, is carried on from the central service room by means of feed shelves and sliding win- 

 dows. Water is provided by automatic fountains of one-gallon capacity set on thermostati- 

 cally controlled electric plates to prevent freezing. 



In the smaller pens where electricity is not available, earthenware dishes, set slightly above 

 the level of the wire, will suffice. These must be filled daily and cleaned frequently. 



The lengthening days of early March bring with them increased activity and physiological 

 prejiaration for the breeding season. The birds, whose consumption of corn in winter will 

 vary with the temperature, now pay little attention to this grain. Since weight is a factor in 

 egg production, it is wise to tempt their appetites further by setting before them a variety of 

 cereals. A moist mixture containing three parts of laying mash to one part of cereals and 

 the substitution of lettuce heads for dried alfalfa, assist in accomplishing tliis purpose. These 



