280 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



even to Kentucky, but as it was not 

 distinguished from the prairie chicken 



The nest of the heath hen, merely a slight 

 hollow scratched in the ground, is likely to be 

 under low shrubby oaks or pines. When the 

 young are hatched they are ready to follow the 

 mother within a few hours. (Photographed from 

 group in the American Museum) 



until 1885/ when it had been extir- 

 pated from the mainland and was con- 

 fined to the island of Martha's Vine- 

 yard, Massachusetts, no one knows 

 where its range ended and that of the 

 prairie chicken began. 



Its extirpation on the mainland was 

 due mainly to lack of statutory protec- 

 tion and law enforcement. Its preser- 

 vation on Martha's Vineyard may be 

 attributed partly to local pride in the 

 species as a distinctive bird of the 

 island, and in part to the efforts of the 

 Massachusetts Commission on Fisheries 

 and Game, under whose authority a 

 reservation for the protection of the 

 species has been maintained since 1907, 

 where shooting is prohibited at all 

 times. Since the establishment of the 

 reservation the birds have increased 

 greatly from time to time, but they 

 have been decimated by forest fires. On 

 May 2, 1907, following a severe fire in 

 1906, the Commissioners could find 

 only twenty-one birds. On January 11, 

 1908, the number in existence was 

 Itelieved to be between forty-five and 

 sixty. In a careful inspection of the 

 region in 1916, I accounted for fully 

 eight hundred birds, and the super- 

 intendent then in charge believed 

 that there were about two thousand. 

 Shortly afterward a raging fire swept 

 the reservation. This was followed 

 during the ensuing winter by a flight 

 of goshawks which are very destructive 

 to grouse, and in April. 1917, I could 

 not account for more than one hundred 

 and twenty-six, a large proportion of 

 which were males. It is probable that 

 fewer than fifty females survived the 

 winter. A few birds meantime had 

 l)oen sent to Long Island, 'Sew York, 

 and to Essex County, Massachusetts, in 

 the hope of establishing new colonies, 

 Init those on Long Island did not- sur- 

 vive. Such in brief is the history of 

 tlie heath hen. 



The most remarkaljle and interesting 



^ Brewster, "William, Ank, Vol. II, Jan., 1885, 

 p. 80. 



