THE GROUSE FAMILY 63 



free range as well as quail. Quails are gregarious and social, 

 keeping together, whereas the young grouse is more inde- 

 pendent and solitary in temperament. Even when the 

 grouse hatches her own young, they are pretty independent 

 of her and soon begin to sneak off alone. When reared 

 with the hen, I find it characteristic of them to wander on 

 their own hook, and especially when small they are hkely to 

 get lost. This has been tried out by Donald MacVicar, as 

 reported to me by his son, A. G. MacVicar. He tried rear- 

 ing them on the plan used with pheasants, but they wan- 

 dered off and got lost. In this case the hens were probably 

 shut in the coops. It would be better to have the hen roam 

 with them, but even then, from my observation of their ways, 

 lam convinced that the hen would lose a good many of them, 

 especially if they were let out thus at an early age. It is 

 likely that Mr. Rogers kept the brood above mentioned in 

 an enclosure for the first few weeks. As they get older they 

 seem to show attachment to locality and a sense of direction, 

 and might be able to find their way back. Further ex- 

 perimentation is needed, and meanwhile the safest plan is 

 to keep the hen and brood inside a fenced area. 



Other Experiments. Doubtless various people are ex- 

 perimenting with the ruffed grouse. I was told of a man in 

 the Middle West who had raised seventy-five the previous 

 season, but I could not secure his name or address. The 

 American Game Protective and Propagation Association has 

 raised a number of them for three successive generations on 

 their game farm at South Carver, Massachusetts. 



Tameness a Problem. The tameness of the young when 

 raised artificially is more of a problem than any supposed 

 "unconquerable wild nature." Such docile birds would 

 naturally fall an easy prey to vermin. They quickly, how- 

 ever, learn wild ways when free, as Rogers has ascertained. 



