278 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



these were planted on the reservation, especially for the use of the 

 heath hen. 



The animal food of the heath hen consisted primarily of insects, 

 chiefly grasshoppers, which were sometimes excessivety abundant on 

 the island late in summer and in autumn. 



There are very few data concerning the food of the young, but, 

 judged from the food of the young prairie chickens, it probably 

 consisted mainly of insects, especially in the case of the younger 

 birds. The crop contents of one 5-day-old heath-hen chick acci- 

 dentally killed on July 15, 1914, contained more than 80 insects repre- 

 senting 10 species. The vegetable matter was merely incidental and 

 negligible in this specimen. 



Game. — The heath hen even when in its prime was never given 

 a high place among game birds by the sportsmen. It was easily shot, 

 because of its direct and laborious flight, and the habit of massing 

 in flocks in the open fields made it too easy a victim for the pot 

 hunter and the market gunner. The ease with which the heath hen 

 was tricked and killed readily accounts for the rapidity of its early 

 disappearance from the mainland, whereas the clever ruffed grouse 

 of the woodlands still holds its own and is ever ready to challenge 

 the wits of the most skilled sportsman. 



The attitude of the sportsman in the past toward the pinnated 

 grouse is well illustrated by the following excerpt from an article 

 by Elisha J. Lewis in his book The American Sportsman, 1885. 



So numerous were they a short time since in the barrens of Kentucky, and 

 so contemptible were they as game birds, that few huntsmen would deign to 

 waste powder and shot on them. In fact they were held in pretty much the 

 same estimation, or, rather abhorrence, that the crows are now, as they per- 

 petrated quite as much mischief upon the tender buds of the orchards, as well 

 as the grain of the fields, and were so destructive to the crops, that it was 

 absolutely necessary for the farmers to employ their young negroes to drive 

 them away by shooting of guns and springing loud rattles all around the planta- 

 tion from morning till night. As for eating them, such a thing was hardly 

 dreamed of, the negroes themselves preferring the coarsest food to this now 

 much admired bird. 



It is apparent that the heath hen was not considered an ideal bird 

 from the point of view of the sportsman, and our efforts to save the 

 heath hen were not made on the plea of its economic importance as 

 a game bird. It is interesting to note, however, that it was the 

 sportsman who took the initiative and who provided a large part 

 of the funds to assist the State in the vain attempt to preserve this 

 interesting race of birds. 



Enemies. — Man directly or indirectly is in part responsible for 

 the disappearance of the heath hen from most of its former range. 

 Comparatively soon after the coining of the white man, it was driven 

 from one locality to the next, until it was forced to entrench on the 



