8o Brewster on the Heath Hen of Massachusetts. [January 



to breed. During the migrations it sometimes visits dry or open 

 situations ; it breeds, as far as known, only in the most tangled 

 swamps. It is an exquisite but fitful singer ; when not singing a 

 silent bird, retiring and sedentary in disposition, eminently ter- 

 restrial in habits. 



Thus much light on what has been an obscure subject ! Impor- 

 tant details remain to be worked out, such as the general distri- 

 bution of the bird in the South, its manner of nesting, etc. It is 

 to be hoped that the near future will see all these points made 

 clear. Meanwhile we may congratulate ourselves on what in 

 effect, if not literally, is the rediscovery of another dost' species. 



THE HEATH HEN OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



Although the Pinnated Grouse was found rather numerously 

 during the first half of the present century at several localities in 

 the Middle and New England States, no specimens from this 

 region seem to have come under the critical notice of modern 

 ornithologists. Accordingly it is with peculiar pleasure and 

 interest that I have entered into an examination of three exam- 

 ples kindly loaned me by Mr. F. T. Jencks, who received them 

 directly from Martha's Vineyard in the autumn of 1S79. Com- 

 pared with western specimens, they prove to be smaller, with 

 relativelv, as well as actually, shorter tarsi ; the feathers of the 

 neck-tufts narrower and acutely instead of obtusely lance-pointed ; 

 generally redder or rustier coloring above, and much less white 

 or whitish below. The neck-tufts, also, have only from four to 

 five instead of from seven to ten rigid feathers. 



It may be pretty safely assumed that at the time of the first 

 settlement of the country, when the Pinnated Grouse ranged 

 more or less uninterruptedly from Eastern Massachusetts to 

 beyond the Mississippi, all the birds found east of the Alle- 

 ghanies were similar to these island specimens; or, to put case 

 more comprehensively as well as definitely, that the large, light- 



