136 BIRIi NAMES. [No. 38. 



name still applied in the vicinity of Martha's Vineyard to native 

 birds, and to the Western grouse that have been introduced there. 

 (I have one of the latter variety in my collection, shot at Fal- 

 mouth, Mass., 1884). On Long Island — though no longer found 

 there — pinnated grouse are still referred to as "heath -hens" 

 by many of the older inhabitants. Dr. Mitchell in a letter to 

 Wilson, dated 1810, concerning the Long Island birds, says : 

 " Known there emphatically by the name of GROUSE " (see No. 

 39), adding, however, that "the more popular name for them 

 is heath-hens." 



Other old names are BARREN HEN, HEATH COCK, and PIN- 

 NATED HEATH COCK. It was a common practice in early times 

 to name our different grouse after " heath-game " of the old 

 country. William Wood, speaking of our " birds and fowle " 

 in New England's Prospect, 163-4, says : " The flesh of the heath- 

 cocks is red, and the flesh of a partridge white ;" and Daniel 

 Denton, in A Brief Description of New York, 1670, tells of 

 " heath-hens, quails, partridges," etc., as being found " in great 

 store." Wilson relates a funny anecdote connected with the 

 passage of a New York game law in 1791 : " The bill was en- 

 titled, ' An Act for the preservation of Heath-hen and other 

 game.' The honest chairman of the Assembly — no sportsman, 

 I suppose — read the title, ' An Act for the preservation of 

 heathen, and other game,' which seemed to astonish the Northern 

 members, who could not see the propriety of preserving Indians, 

 or any other heathen." 





