56 The Ruffed Grouse 



quick failure. The first faint hope of ultimate success came in 1903 

 when Professor Hodge of Massachusetts's Clark University suc- 

 ceeded in maturing several grouse from wild eggs. Two years later 

 he passed another milestone with hatching of the first grouse from 

 captivity-raised parents. From that time until 1916 Merrill and Tor- 

 rey successively carried on the grouse raising experiments for the 

 state of Massachusetts that Hodge had begun as a hobby. They 

 proved conclusively the futility of trying to use wild-caught breed- 

 ing stock; they succeeded in raising the first second-generation 

 grouse, but finally became discouraged and released the seventeen 

 birds remaining in the spring of 1916. 



In 1912 the American Game Protective Association became inter- 

 ested in the problem and engaged Torrey to do their experiments. 

 After he moved to the Massachusetts state game farm in 1914, the as- 

 sociation encouraged other experiments. These, however, added lit- 

 tle to the knowledge of the subject. In 1919 they persuaded Allen 

 ( 1929 ) of Cornell to try his hand at the problem. Thus began the era 

 of scientific fact finding in game breeding. In twelve years of alter- 

 nating hope and despair, Allen proved that grouse could be raised in 

 captivity with some success in small numbers. It was he who took 

 the birds off the ground, placing them in wire-bottomed pens, thus 

 partially solving the disease problem.^ Allen uncovered the primary 

 essentials of a breeding technique with the captive hens and cocks, 

 so essential in obtaining a high fertility ratio and in preventing ex- 

 cessive mortality. And in many other aspects of grouse propagation, 

 Allen developed the first satisfactory techniques. 



In 1931, Bump took up the problem in connection with the New 

 York Grouse Investigation and for several years Allen and Bump 

 worked cooperatively, with Allen pursuing further definite research 

 problems and Bump attempting to develop methods for practical 

 large-scale propagation. In the ten years of work with grouse propa- 

 gation. Bump raised nearly 2,000 grouse, including birds of the 

 tenth generation. However, in spite of continually improving meth- 

 ods and a growing knowledge of the requirements of the species, 

 grouse propagation is still not economical, dependable, or practical 

 for restocking purposes. 



The vital problems that still must be solved before the raising of 



^ Other breeders, with other species, developed the wire floor technique inde- 

 pendently at about the same time. 



