PINNATED GROUSE 219 
stump, and contained either twelve or thirteen eggs. 
The date, he thought, was about June 10. This seemed 
late, but I have a set of six eggs taken on the Vineyard 
July 24, 1885, and on July 19, 1890, I met a blueberry 
picker who only the day before had started a brood of 
six young, less than half grown. These facts prove 
that this bird is habitually a late breeder. 
“The farmers about Tisbury say that in spring the 
male heath hen makes a booming or tooting noise. 
This, according to their descriptions, must resemble 
the love notes of the western pinnated grouse. About 
sunrise, on warm, still mornings in May, several birds 
may be sometimes heard at once, apparently answer- 
ing one another. 
“During my stay at Martha’s Vineyard, I obtained 
as many estimates as possible of the number of heath 
hens which are believed to exist there at the present 
time. My most trustworthy informants were, credit- 
ably, averse to what was apparently mere idle guessing ; 
but when I questioned them, first as to the extent of 
the region over which the birds ranged, and next as to 
how many on the average could be found in a square 
mile within this region, they answered readily enough, 
and even with some positiveness. As already stated, 
the total present range of the heath hen covers about 
forty square miles. The estimates of the average 
number of birds per mile varied from three to five, 
giving from 120 to 200 birds for the total number. 
These estimates, it should be stated, relate to the num- 
ber of birds believed to have been left over from last 
