318 Practical Bird-Keeping.


is sometimes seen without young is that, while the birds seeks

damp rushy places to nest in, the chicks are exceptionally

delicate, and their survival greatly depends upon the sort of

weather which they have to face during the first week or two

of their lives.


Redgrouse have been often kept in a half-tame condition,

and more than once in recent years they have been bred in

confinement. This has always I think been achieved in places

where a supply of heather was available to augment their food.

But I have no heather within reach, and my Grouse had to be

content with meal, green stuff and bird seed (Canary and hemp),

with such grass and clover as the)" found in their enclosure. I

had a hen Grouse for over three years, which during that time

never saw heather. Her habits of course altered considerably

under such artificial conditions. She would, in wet weather,

roost on a lower branch of a box tree, and I have seen her

busily breaking up and eating an acorn.


Grouse are charming pets, and the cocks become almost

troublesomelv bold and aggressive. A full-winged tame cock

Grouse that I used to know on Spey-side would fly in the face of

any stranger in the spring-time.


I always expected that Willow-Grouse, from living on a

more varied diet, would be more easily managed than the British

Red Grouse, and when I obtained a small lot in 1908 I found

this was certainly the case. We never had the slightest diffi¬

culty in keeping them, as they would eat all that a Red-Grouse

would take, and, in addition, Birch, Sallow and Beech, foliage

and twig ends. Though wild-cauglit birds, sent direct from

Sweden, they would, in about three weeks time, run towards

one at feeding time. My first birds all proved to be hens,

but, nevertheless, four out of the six laid the first summer.

The following spring I succeeded in getting some cocks ; but,

afterwards, though we hatched young, and a pair which I pre¬

sented to the Zoological Gardens reared a small brood, a severe

visitation of “gapes” not only prevented any further success

that season, but obliged me, much against my inclination, to

give up keeping any more of the Grouse family.


Although, under the supervision of the Committee of



