ORIENTATION 447 



experimenter to realize that the problem may not be solved by adopting a new type of 

 hover or by adding v^rintergreen to the diet. In fact, little useful purpose beyond encour- 

 aging public hopes and interest is likely to be served by continuing such rule-of-thumb 

 experiments. 



Large-scale production of grouse in captivity apparently depends upon the ability of grouse 

 breeders to produce, by selective breeding, a strain of birds which will lay a large number 

 of fertile eggs which will, when hatched, produce chicks that can be reared to maturity with- 

 out undue effort or loss. Perhaps a hundred individuals have raised a few grouse in cap- 

 tivity, but each has been unable to translate early successes on a small scale into continuous 

 large-scale production. 



Methods of Raising Grouse " 



There are but two main systems of raising grouse in captivity, the natural cover and the 

 incubation brooder methods. Under the first, the birds are maintained on the ground in large 

 covered pens under semi-natural conditions. In contrast with this, birds that are hatched in 

 incubators, reared and held on wire and closely penned are said to be handled by the incu- 

 bator-brooder method. Many combinations of these have been tried. 



The merits and drawbacks of each method are described later in some detail by way of 

 presenting the whole picture, although the factor of disease has made the raising of grouse 

 on the ground at best a precarious proposition. 



Progress to Date 



This phase of the Investigation was largely an outgrowth of the pioneering experiments 

 of Dr. A. A. Allen at Cornell", although Hodge, Merrill, and Torrey had demonstrated pre- 

 viously that grouse could be raised from wild eggs*. However, little progress had been made 

 in overcoming many of the difficulties standing in the way of mass production. While 

 trying modifications of the old and accepted methods for ten years, Allen realized that his 

 first limitation lay in the susceptibility of grouse to certain diseases. He then made two pivotal 

 advances. First he abandoned disease-carrying hens as foster mothers in favor of the then 

 none too reliable artificial hovers. Secondly he developed a method of raising and wintering 

 grouse on wire. 



* See itory of early grouse rearing experiments in Chapter I. 



