14 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
She will rush at an intruder with lowered wings, spread tail, and bristling hackle and 
open mouth. They will often strike a man with beak and wings if he stoops to touch 
one of the chicks. I have reared red grouse, black grouse, and Capercaillie, and have 
found the two last named equally difficult to bring up. They have a way of dying 
suddenly, when half-grown, from no apparent cause. 
Mr. W. H. St. Quentin, who is one of the most successful aviculturalists in these 
islands, has very kindly sent me the following notes on his unsuccessful attempts to 
rear young Capercaillie : — 
"I have found them more difficult, by far, than any other 'game-bird' to rear, and there 
is something which evidently we fail to supply to the chicks, apparently when they are about 
quail size, say, one month old, which is essential. It is not merely a question of ground (eleva- 
tion), or soil, or climate. Two clever Scotch keepers have tried repeatedly to rear Capercaillie 
for me. In one case a Norfolk man, most successful with pheasants, grouse, and tame partridges, 
and with Capers on his present beat in Kincardineshire, did rear me two birds. These proved 
both to be hens, and it is interesting to notice that they both nested and sat here the following 
summer. This, of course, with no result, as there was no male bird with them. But it proved 
that Capercaillie hens breed in their second summer (when a year old). 
" In the other case, another keeper, whose house is on the edge of a wood where Capercaillie 
breed, made a large enclosure, and turned out in it a quiet hen with a brood of newly hatched 
chicks. The ground seemed quite suitable, being broken with hillocks and hollows, on gritty 
soil, and with all the moorland plants growing under old Scots firs. No young bird was reared 
in this case, though I am sure the keeper would do his best. 
" I have tried here more than once to rear Capers from eggs sent down from Perthshire. 
The young have never got beyond partridge size, though up to that time they have thriven. 
They generally fell amiss and died within twenty-four hours. 
" I reared two young hens, three years ago, from eggs laid here by a pinioned (German) 
bird. But my nearest approach to a real success was in 1907, when, as I recorded in the 
Avicultural Magazine, we had six young birds thriving till the beginning of August, when the 
cocks were just beginning to show colour on their shoulders and mantles. These birds were 
reared, till they were a month old, entirely in a dry shed facing south, on sandy soil, kept 
most scrupulously clean, and frequently attended. These were from the second clutch of a 
very nice tame hen. Her first brood hatched well, and at first throve, but I think they died of 
pneumonia, and I decided for the second brood to protect them from all chance of damp. This 
was successful, and I have no doubt that we should have reared these birds completely, but for 
a most unfortunate accident. I had a couple of Cabot's Tragopans in London, and sent them 
down home. One of them died in an aviary, and the illness was not at this time recognised. 
It turned out to be undoubtedly septic enteritis, for during a violent thunderstorm these six 
young Capercaillie were driven into this aviary for shelter from their enclosure, where they 
had been running about loose, mothered by an excellent little silky game bantam hen. They 
were only here for a few hours, but it was enough. Nine days later first one and then 
another sickened and died, and in the end I lost them all. Several of them were examined 
by a specialist. The Caper chicks thrive upon custard, chopped lettuce, live ants, eggs, earth- 
worms, oatmeal groats, canary seed, and they soon peck and pull at clover and grass. Good 
grit and absolutely pure water are of course essential. If I try any more, which I hope to do, 
I shall increase the animal food, say, with chopped boiled rabbit, especially as these birds 
grow older. I may say that I reared Temminck's Tragopans and Red Grouse under precisely 
the same treatment with which, this summer, we failed with Capercaillie. They were all run- 
ning loose with their own foster-mothers, in an enclosure of an acre of perfectly clean ground, 
where no birds had ever been kept or reared. I am sure damp is their chief enemy, and I 
think that the chicks may want more animal food as they grow up and feather. 
