OF WILD ANIMALS i 79 



conduct. Some of our upland game birds, particularly the 

 Franklin grouse and ptarmigan of the Rocky Mountains, dis- 

 play real mental deficiencies in the very necessary business of 

 self-preservation. 



Wildness and Tameness of the Ruffed Grouse. The 

 ruffed grouse is one of the most difficult of all North American 

 game birds to keep in captivity. This fact is due largely, 

 though not entirely, to the nervous and often hysterical tem- 

 perament of this species. Some birds will within a reasonable 

 time quiet down and accept captivity, but others throughout 

 long periods, — or forever, — remain wild as hawks, and per- 

 petually try to dash themselves to pieces against the wire of 

 their enclosures. Prof. A. A. Allen of Cornell once kept a bird 

 for an entire year, only to find it at the end of that time hope- 

 lessly wild; so he gave the bird its liberty. 



However, in this species there are numerous exceptions. 

 Some wing-tipped birds have calmed down and accepted 

 captivity gracefully and sensibly, and a few of the cases of this 

 kind have been remarkable. The most astonishing cases, 

 however, have been of the tameness of free wild birds, in the 

 Catskills, and also near the city of Schenectady. A great many 

 perfectly truthful stories have been published of wild birds 

 that actually sought close acquaintance with people, and took 

 food from their hands. 



We have been asked to account for those strange mani- 

 festations, but it is impossible to do so. It seems that in some 

 manner, certain grouse individuals learned that Man is not 

 always a killer and a dangerous animal, and so those birds ac- 

 cepted him as a friend, — until the killers came along and vio- 

 lated the sanctuary status. 



It is both necessary, and highly desirable for the increase 

 of species, that all wild birds should fly promptly, rapidly and 

 far from the presence of Man, the Arch Enemy of Wild Life. 

 The species that persistently neglects to do so, or is unable, soon 

 is utterly destroyed. The great auk species was massacred and 



