26 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GROUSE 



though they are considered rather to deteriorate in 

 flavour. It is this readiness to feed upon grain which 

 makes it possible to keep grouse in confinement, or at 

 any rate in a state of semi-captivity. Some few years 

 ago, when the sand grouse were visiting England, I was 

 told one day that a sand grouse in the possession 

 of a neighbour had nested and laid some eggs. On 

 inquiry we found that the bird, which had nested in 

 the house of its owner, was a tame red grouse, which 

 had voluntarily begun to incubate. No instance of 

 the grouse rearing its young in captivity has come 

 under my notice hitherto, although some half-dozen 

 records of the fact appear to be authenticated. The 

 late Mr. Osborne, for example, kept a number of 

 grouse in confinement for several years, and on one 

 occasion a pair bred and hatched out five healthy 

 chicks. Their owner used to walk many miles from 

 Wick to fetch the tender heather shoots for the old 

 and young grouse which had hatched out within his 

 walls in the town. 1 



It is remarkable that so shy and retiring a bird 

 as the red grouse should become extremely bold and 

 adventurous under artificial conditions, yet of this 

 there can be no possible doubt. Mr. W. Oxenden 

 Hammond tells us of a red grouse which was taken to 

 1 Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness, p. 205. 



