DESTRUCTION AND PROTECTION 541 
at some length in the Reports of the Massachusetts 
Commissioners for the years 1907 and 1908. 
In 1907 the efforts of the Massachusetts Commis- 
sioners to rear ruffed grouse in confinement resulted in 
little more than the acquisition of some experience as 
to what not to do. It was learned, for one thing, that’ 
the males are extremely disposed to fight. During the 
winter, in a pen of three young birds one male killed 
another with which it had grown up. Even during 
the mating season there was need of great care lest 
the male kill the female. His attacks on the females 
caused them great alarm, since it was impossible for 
them to escape from the cage, and they hurt them- 
selves in their efforts to do so. In fact it was not 
safe to put the male in the coop for mating without 
closely watching him, and it was necessary to remove 
him almost at once. 
The birds in the coops of the commission soon be- 
came noticeably unafraid. They paid little attention 
to what was going on outside, and did not display the 
timidity and restlessness of the bobwhite. It was ob- 
served that they ate with appetite and appeared to 
enjoy their food. Nevertheless, the male grouse died 
late in the summer, evidently from an infectious dis- 
ease communicated to him probably through infected 
ground. 
No one has approached the success which has at- 
tended the work of Prof. C. F. Hodge, of Clark Uni- 
versity, who for some years, as a rest and recreation 
from his ordinary work, has been trying to rear ruffed 
