388 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



they had decreased seventy-five per cent, during the previous 

 few years. Since then the species narrowly has escaped ex- 

 tinction. In 1894 a fire swept over practically all the breeding 

 grounds, and Mr. Hoyle states that in the fall of that year he 

 spent two weeks going over the ground, and found the skele- 

 tons of many birds destroyed in the fire; that where he had 

 started a hundred birds the previous fall, he failed to start 

 five. He says that in 1897 he again went over the ground with 

 a good bird dog and did not start a bird. Since then the foxes 

 and raccoons are believed to have been exterminated. In 

 1902 three specimens of the Prairie Chicken {Tympanuchus 

 americanus americanus) were liberated on Martha's Vineyard, 

 but whether or not they survived is not known. A fire swept 

 over the breeding grounds in 1906 and very few birds were 

 reared that year; but, under protection, the birds have in- 

 creased slowly. On May 2, 1907, the Commissioners on Fish- 

 eries and Game could find only twenty-one birds on the island. 

 On January 11, 1908, the number was between forty-five and 

 sixty. 



The exceptional conditions on the island, which have been 

 partly responsible for the preservation of the Heath Hen, are: 

 (1) its isolation, the island having no railroads and no trolley 

 line into the interior; (2) the ground inhabited mainly by the 

 Heath Hen is very sparsely settled ; (3) wolves, foxes, raccoons, 

 lynxes and other natural enemies, except cats, are extirpated 

 or rare on the island, and a bounty is paid on bird Hawks 

 by the count}' commissioners; (4) the soil, vegetation and 

 cover are exactly suited to the bird; (5) the snowfall on the 

 island is light; (6) there is some local pride in preserving the 

 Heath Hen. It would thrive wherever such conditions existed 

 if it were undisturbed by poachers, but unfortunately as it 

 grew rarer its skins and eggs were sought by museums and 

 collectors, and this furnished an added incentive to the hunters, 

 a few of whom I am assured still shoot the birds wherever 

 they can find them regardless of law or any other consideration. 



The history of legislation to protect the Heath Hen is 

 interesting. I have found no record of any laws or regulations 

 regarding it in any town or city, or in the Commonwealth 



