TRANSPLANTING AMERICAN GAME BIRDS 529 
estate. Their nests filled with eggs were found along 
the fences of the fields near the meadows. The birds 
became tame, visiting the cattle yards, and feeding near 
the buildings of the farm. They multiplied rapidly. A 
law was passed by the Maryland legislature protecting 
them from gunners. The birds seemed to like the large 
salt meadows of the estate, and exhibited but little fear 
of strangers. Unfortunately for the birds, a number of 
terrapin hunters from New Jersey ascended the bay 
and river in their small vessels. Seeing these tame 
birds on the meadows, the Jerseymen commenced a 
war of extermination upon them, which soon resulted 
in the destruction of almost the entire lot. A work- 
man on Dr. Purnell’s estate informed me that he had 
seen eighteen prairie chickens in the cornfield, near the 
house, in November of the present year. It was the 
only covey left by the Jersey terrapin hunters, who 
came up from Chincoteague Inlet. The same gentle- 
man who sent these fine birds to Dr. Purnell is about 
to send down from New Jersey the ruffed grouse, 
called in that State and Pennsylvania, the pheasant. 
There are no ruffed grouse on the Peninsula.” 
In Forest and Stream of Nov. 25, 1880, Mr. C. S. 
Wescott reported that a half-grown prairie chicken had 
been brought to Mr. John Krider, of Philadelphia, for 
mounting, the bird having been sent from lower Dela- 
ware or Maryland with a lot of quail to a Philadelphia 
game dealer. The bird was not preserved. Mr. Wes- 
cott believed—and no doubt he was right about it—that 
this was a descendant of the birds liberated in Mary- 
teeel Lil 
