on Red Grouse in Confinement. 95


effective, but it is very easy to give too much and kill the bird

outright.


Altogether, out of eighteen chicks hatched, I reared eleven

to maturity, but unfortunately all of these, except four, have

turned out to be cocks. I separated all the cocks in October, as

they began to fight, the liens were paired off, and the odd cocks

placed in pens by themselves. I introduced a hen Ryper to one

of the young unattached cocks, and even in October he nearly

killed her with his attentions, so that I had to separate them

again ; however, if I cannot obtain some hen Grouse before the

Spring I shall try them again with Rypers, which I am convinced

are nothing more or less than Red Grouse, upon whom climatic

conditions have brought about changes of plumage, and I am

certain that all signs of the Ryper parentage could be bred out

of the hybrids in a very few generations.


With Grouse, as with all other birds, it is essential that the

food and water vessels should be kept scrupulously clean, they

are very apt to let their droppings fall in their water and food,

and it is very injurious for them to eat soiled food and drink

fouled water. Grouse deposit two distinct kinds of excrement,

the one dry and often quite hard, the other much more fluid and

looks like dark slimy paste. Some people think this latter excre¬

ment is a sign of ill health, but that is an erroneous view, as a

matter of fact every healthy Grouse excretes both forms of drop¬

pings, the dry firm droppings pass straight from the main gut,

and the soft pasty excrement follows shortly after from the caecal

appendices. The amount of excrement dropped by a Grouse

during one night is often very surprising.


Grouse, like all game-birds, delight in a good dust bath,

and this should always be provided in the shape of a heap of dry

sandy soil.


In concluding these notes it may be as well to give a brief

list of what is essential and what should be avoided.


Essential: Clean food and water; food to consist of wheat

and dari, also some heather (unless the birds when obtained have

been weaned from it by degrees), green food of some sort—

cabbage, lettuce, chicory, dandelion, grass, spinach, etc.—plenty

of grit, a dusting bath and as large an aviary as possible.



