get caught in the storm, to the detriment of the whole 

 brood. If this brood had been in a vermin proof area 

 and penned up before the September migration, I believe 

 I would have successfully reared the entire lot of seven. 

 While I can recommend this system as an excellent one. 

 our second experiment worked out on a larger scale in 

 1917 prompts me to recommend the second method as 

 the best of the two. 



Three clutches were put down under bantams. Thirty 

 eight young grouse were hatched out and placed in coops, 

 50 yards apart on a hill side not far from the bungalow 

 in which I lived. The coops were placed among birches, 

 ferns, wild grasses, and odd huckleberry bushes. In 

 fact ideal ruffed grouse natural habitat. The weather 

 was bad for sometime at first, in consequence of which 

 there was a considerable decrease in the quantities of the 

 flies. Therefore I had to depend on the meal and egg 

 mixture as a staple food, varied with the addition of ant's 

 eggs, and cottage cheese. The broods were liberated 

 when a couple of days old from the coop runways, but the 

 hens or foster mothers were kept in coops. 



The lot did fine till about three weeks old notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that the weather was very bad most of the 

 time, 



I was laid up for several days and had to send a young 

 man to do the feeding. On my return to duty I found a 

 lot of the chicks suffering from bowel trouble from which 

 many died. This I attributed to over feeding. I found 

 traces of food where coops had stood. This of course 

 was stale and no doubt in my mind the cause of the trouble 

 which I had great difficulty in checking. When a few 

 days old the broods rambled a long way from the coops. 

 They kept me busy herding them back to their several 

 coops. Generally they would find their own way back. 

 Odd birds though would go too far down hill. These I 

 carried back. Many times I would miss several at feeding 

 time, but after a wide search would come on them busy 

 chasing the insects. For this system of rearing I recom- 

 mend level ground. Hill sides are apt to entice the young 

 chicks to roam too far from the coops. 



The ultimate result of the second experiment was ex- 

 tremely disappointnig to me inasmuch as the aggregate 

 raised was only 8 birds. Yet I consider the results as 

 due to accidents which are under normal conditions 

 avoidable. 



A special pen about % of an acre covered over with 

 wire netting was constructed on natural ground, and into 

 this eight birds were placed. 



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