02 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



'"New York, Sept. 19, 1810. 



" ' Dear Sir, — It giv#s me much pleasure to reply to your 

 letter of the 12th inst., asking of me information concerning the 

 Grouse of Long Island. 



" ' The birds, which are known there emphatically by the name 

 of Grouse, inhabit chiefly the forest range. This district of the 

 island may be estimated as being between forty and fifty miles 

 in length, extending from Bethphage, in Queen's County, to the 

 neighborhood of the Court-house, in Suffolk. Its breadth is not 

 more than six or seven. For though the island is bounded by 

 the Sound, • separating it from Connecticut on the north and the 

 Atlantic Ocean on the south, there is a margin of several miles 

 on each side in the actual possession of human beings. 



" ' The regions in which these birds reside lie mostly within the 

 towns of Oysterbay, Huntington, Islip, Smithstown and Brooklyn; 

 though it would be incorrect to say that they were not to be met 

 with sometimes in River Head and Southampton. This territory 

 has been defined by some sportsmen as situated between Hemp- 

 stead Plain on the west and Shinnecock Plain on the east. 



" ' The more popular name for them is Heath-Hens. By this 

 they are designated in the act of our Legislature for the preser- 

 vation of them and of other game. I well remember the passing 

 of this law. The bill was introduced by Cornelius J. Bogart, 

 Esq., a Member of Assembly from the city of New York. It 

 was in the month of February, 1791, the year when, as a repre- 

 sentative from my native county of Queen's, I sat for the first 

 time in Legislature. 



" ' The statute declares among other things, that " the person 

 who shall kill any Heath-Hen within the counties of Suffolk or 

 Queen's, between the 1st day of April and the 5th day of Octo- 

 ber, shall for any such offence forfeit and pay the sum of two 

 dollars and a half, to be recovered with costs of suit by any per- 

 son who shall prosecute for the same before any Justice of the 

 Peace in either of said counties, the one half to be paid to plain- 

 tiff" and the other half to the overseers of the poor ; and if any 

 Heath-Hen so killed shall be found in the possession of any per 



