April 3, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
535 
Game Bird Propagation in 
Massachusetts. 
The Massachusetts Fish and Game Commis¬ 
sion was among the pioneers in the propaga¬ 
tion of game birds in the United States. Be¬ 
ginning with ring-necked pheasants in 1895, the 
commission since has reared and distributed 
about 5,000 birds throughout the State. In¬ 
cubators and brooders were used in the earlier 
years of this work; but later most of the chicks 
were hatched and brooded by cochin bantam 
hens with better results. 
Since the death of Commissioner Brackett, the 
aviaries at Winchester have been given up and 
all this work is now concentrated at the Sutton 
hatchery, where the propagation of native game 
birds was begun in 1905. Pens capable of ac¬ 
commodating 500 birds were built for grouse 
and quail. These pens are stationary, walled 
and covered with wire netting. Ten pens are 
11x55 feet each. Another series of yards is 
were reared. Part of these, however, were reared 
by Dr. Hodge after the eggs had been incubated 
at the Sutton hatchery. He raised seventy-five 
birds. Mr. Coffin attempted to keep his birds 
in a poultry yard, on the Whitin estate; but al¬ 
though he secured from the woods fresh earth 
and leaf mould, which he put in a clean brooder, 
disinfecting everything about it, the birds suc¬ 
cumbed to accident and disease. 
These returns speak for themselves. Never¬ 
theless the experiments made are valuable in¬ 
sofar as the records exhibit the causes of failure 
and enable us intelligently to seek the remedy. 
An examination of the records shows that a 
large proportion of the eggs laid by grouse in 
captivity were infertile, while those laid by wild 
birds were practically all fertile. On the other 
hand, the eggs from quail in captivity show 
almost as high a percentage of fertility as those 
from the wild grouse. A further examination 
of the records indicates that the low fertility 
of the grouse eggs was partially due to mis- 
Hodge found the rectal temperature of a brood¬ 
ing cock quail to be ill degrees. He therefore 
raised the temperature of his brooders 5 de¬ 
grees and got the chicks out in the sun as much 
as possible, with good results. Careful obser¬ 
vations on the incubating and brooding temper¬ 
atures of both quail and grouse will be con¬ 
tinued. 
Nearly fifty quail chicks from three days to 
six week old are believed to have died at 
Sutton from an over-dose of cholera medicine. 
Any one examining the records of the work 
done at Sutton is at once impressed by the 
large number of accidents recorded. Broken 
eggs, young birds lost, chilled or killed by ac¬ 
cidental causes all suggest inexperience or 
carelessness among the attendants; in fact, 
these experiments in the propagation of game 
birds, which require the utmost patience, care 
and skill, seem to have been necessarily con¬ 
ducted as a sort of side issue to the business of 
the fish hatchery that they might cost the State 
WINTER COOP FOR RUFFED GROUSE. SIZE 4 O X 4 O FEET. BROODER AND SUMMER CAGE COMBINED. 
Reproduced from photographs by C. F. Hod'ge. 
somewhat larger and one is 15x60 feet. There 
is an open shed for shelter at the end of each 
pen. These pens are supplied with running 
spring water. Arthur Merrill, superintendent 
of the hatchery, now believes that, while these 
large stationary pens are necessary in pheasant 
raising, the small portable coops are better for 
rearing the ruffed grouse and Bob White. 
Notwithstanding all statements to the con¬ 
trary, the propagation of American game birds 
in captivity has not yet gone beyond the first 
experimental stages; years of study and ex¬ 
periment will be required to put it on a prac¬ 
tical basis. Thus far the work has not led to 
even an exact knowledge of the caus.e of fail¬ 
ure in all cases, to say nothing of the means of 
prevention. Nevertheless, the Massachusetts 
Commission has been gradually learning what 
not to do, and enough of this kind of negative 
knowledge has been gained to give promise of 
eventual success. In 1908, as in the two 
previous years, the commissioners co-operated 
with Dr, C. F. Flodge, of Clark University. 
Birds have been exchanged and inbreeding 
thus prevented. At Sutton 150 grouse eggs 
were incubated, 122 birds hatched and two 
reared to maturity. Dr. Hodge set one clutch 
of eggs and reared three birds. M. H. Coffin, 
of Whitinsville, set one clutch and reared no 
birds. At Sutton 470 Bob White eggs were ob¬ 
tained, of which 222 were hatched and 59 birds 
mating. When the birds were properly mated 
the eggs were fertile. In some cases the male 
is very pugnacious and worries the female so 
much as to ruin all chance of offspring. Dr. 
Hodge has already proved that, with proper 
mating and handling, fertile eggs can be secured 
from grouse in confinement. Attempts to mate 
a single cock quail with two hen birds have 
resulted in a low percentage of fertility in the 
eggs, and seems to indicate that, as a rule, the 
cock will mate with but one hen. 
The incubator hatches at Sutton were failures 
in 1908, probably owing to some fault in the 
handling, as the incubators were supposed to 
be run on the same plan and at the same tem¬ 
perature as in 1907, when 90 per cent, of the 
fertile eggs put into the incubator hatched. 
In both years the standard temperature of the 
incubator was 103 degrees, and the eggs were 
aired twice each day and cooled an hour at the 
morning airing. 
A great part of the mortality from disease 
occurred during the first three weeks of the 
lives of the young birds. Many of the grouse' 
died within the first few days. Superintendent 
Merrill reports that at the Sutton hatchery 
some young quail were killed by a drop of the 
brooder temperature to 70 degrees for an hour 
or two. Something of this nature may have 
happened to some of the young grouse. It is 
of interest to note in this connection that Dr. 
practically nothing. Economy is to be com 
mended, but such experiments are of great im¬ 
portance and value, not only to Massachusetts 
alone, but to all North America, and if they 
are to go on, the most capable and intelligent 
paid investigator whom it is possible to secure 
should be put in charge and given competent 
assistance when necessary. Next in importance 
to a competent attendant we must place the 
study of the diseases of the birds, for disease 
is responsible for a great mortality, particularly 
among the young chicks. A thorough scien¬ 
tific study of the nature and origin of each dis¬ 
ease and the means by which it is communi¬ 
cated must be made. 
If the pathologist could have a laboratory 
upon the ground, or have diseased birds placed 
in his hands while still living, the study of 
disease would be facilitated. Chief among the 
infections thus far investigated in an enteric 
disease synonymous with what is known as the 
black head in turkeys. 
There is some difference of opinion among 
the authorities regarding the cause of the dis¬ 
ease. It has been attributed to a coccidium and 
also to an ameba, but it now seems not im¬ 
probable that both these organisms may be 
manifestations of the same disease. 
Dr. Tyzzer, of the Harvard Medical School, 
who examined many of the dead birds, suggests 
that probably some birds recover, as some 
