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Mr. H. Wormald,



RED GROUSE IN CONFINEMENT.


By H. Wormald.


In the early Spring I obtained four pairs of Red Grouse

from the experimental Grouse farm at Frimley, and of all game

birds that I have kept, Grouse have proved themselves by far the

tamest and most interesting, and have the great merit of being

tolerably easy to cater for. I understood that at Frimley the

birds had been provided with heather daily, so at first I had to

get them a bunch every day, besides wheat and dari, but I have

gradually reduced the heather and now they only have it once a

week, and I hope in time that they will do without it altogether.

The birds were very tame when they arrived, and the next day

were quite at home, the cocks crowing vigorously all day, with

their supraorbital combs fully extended and quite ready to attack

anybody who went near them.


In the Spring, when displaying to the liens, cock Grouse

drop their wings and spread their tails and run round the lady of

their choice with their necks stretched out. When crowing, they

stand fairly upright with neck stretched out, gradually raising

themselves until at the end of the crow they are standing on tip

toe and nearly falling over backwards. At the end of a fortnight

the hens showed signs of wishing to go to nest, so I fixed a thick

mass of heather in one corner of each pen, and in a day or two

all four hens commenced laying under the bushes of heather,

which were thick enough to keep out all rain, hail and frost.

They laid on alternate days, and when they had about six eggs

each I removed four from each nest and placed them under

bantams, subsequent events proving that it was very fortunate

that I had done so. The Grouse continued to lay until they had

each deposited some ten eggs, when they commenced to sit; the}'

proved themselves very close sitters and all went well for a fort¬

night, when one night a stoat or a rat (I never discovered which)

got into the aviaries and killed two cocks and all the sitting liens,

besides breaking the eggs. On discovering the havoc next

morning, I could do very little except walk round the aviaries,

speaking “winged words” about vermin in general, and taking

steps to ensure the safety of the two remaining cocks. Fortu-



