GROUSE IN CAPTIVITY 487 



The experiment has also been tried at Mr Pain's of mating one cock with two 

 hens ; this also has not been a success. At first two hens were placed in one coop 

 with a cock ; but it was found that this was a failure on account of the 



Mating one 



jealousy of the hens, the stronger and more pugnacious hen would never cook with 



• • !• ii-in *'^° hens. 



allow the other to receive any attention from the cock bird, and 

 eventually one of the hens had to be removed. But it must be remembered 

 that these two hens were confined with the cock in a small coop, and could 

 not escape from one another ; a state of things altogether unlike their natural 

 existence. 



Another method adopted was that of placing two hens side by side in two 

 coops, and a cock was kept with them and placed in each coop alternately for 

 forty-eight hours. One hen laid seven eggs ; the other laid four eggs, but would 

 not sit ; the hen with seven eggs hatched one chicken ; the four eggs from the 

 other hen were placed under another bird, and all produced chickens. 



For the information of those correspondents who may be desirous of rearing 

 or keeping Grouse in captivity, it may be interesting to know how 

 the Grouse have been fed. At first, of course, the feeding was largely 

 experimental : as has already been mentioned the coops were placed where the 

 Grouse could obtain fresh heather for themselves ; and it was extra- 

 ordinary to see the way in which the birds ate the heather. Two birds on fresh 

 in forty-eight hours would make the patch of heather contained within 

 their coop appear as if it had been browsed by sheejj. Later on the birds were 

 supplied with faggots or bunches of fresh heather, and this was found to answer 

 admirably, for at the Frimley Sanatorium there is hardly any growing heather, 

 and the birds are for the most part kept on bilberry patches, with a few scraps of 

 heather ; but they thrive well on their daily bunches of heather. In addition to 

 heather the birds receive a mixture of grain ; at first this consisted of 

 dharri, chicken rice, buckwheat, and feed millet ; but it was found they 

 did not eat the two last, so now only dharri and chicken rice are given. 

 Experience also shows that Grouse are very partial to fresh vegetables, 

 especially lettuce. Attention has already been called to the necessity 

 of a pure water supply, which is most essential. 



Another important point is grit. Grouse must have plenty of suitable grit ; 

 the best and most natural is white quartz. The Grouse on the experi- 

 mental area have always been supplied with plenty of this grit through 

 the kindness of Sir Watkin W. Wynn ; without this they could not have been 



