THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 151 



j'orninm-e they mount a dead log and flattening the tail upon it rapidly 

 \ i brute the \\ ings against the air. 1 Much discussion was formerly in- 

 dulged in as to the method by which the sound was produced, but all 

 doubts have now been settled and the bird even photographed in the 

 act. 



With the extermination of the Wild Turkey and the Heath Hen, 

 the Grouse becomes our largest upland game bird, but unfortunately 

 it, too, is decreasing as the timber is cut away, as it must have thick 

 cover for its welfare. 



306 Tympanuchus cupido (Linnaeus). 

 Heath Hen, Eastern Prairie Chicken. 



Adult male. Length, 17-19. Wing, 8.60-9.40. Above, barred with dusky, 

 brown and buff ; scapulars with conspicuous buff spots ; under parts, white, 

 broadly barred with dark brown ; chin and throat, buff ; tail, brownish, tipped 

 with white, a tuft of not more than ten lanceolate, pointed black feathers mot- 

 tled with buff on each side of the neck, with a patch of bare skin below them 

 capable of inflation. 



Adult female. Similar, but with neck tufts much reduced and tail barred. 



Nest similar to that of the Ruffed Grouse ; eggs, six to thirteen, creamy-buff, 

 with a slight tinge of green, 1.70 x 1.25. 



The Heath Hen is now extinct in New Jersey and throughout its 

 former habitat, with the exception of Martha's Vineyard, where a small 

 remnant of the species still remains. It was very similar to the Prairie 

 Chicken of the West, which is likewise disappearing rapidly. 



The home of the Heath Hen in New Jersey was the extensive sandy 

 areas known as the "Plains/ 7 extending westward from Barnegat and 

 Tuckerton, which are covered with a growth of low, stunted oaks and 

 pines only a foot or two in height. 



Krider 2 states that he shot the birds here in 1840, and Turnbull, 

 in 1869, says, "Within the last year or two it has been found in the 

 Jersey Plains." This, however, seems to mark the time of its final 

 extinction. 



A writer in Dough ty's Cabinet of Natural History, in 1832, 3 says, 

 "The barrens of Gloucester, and other counties of this State, have been 

 the most celebrated grounds, east of the Allegheny, for this chief of 

 our feathered game. In former years they were in great abundance 



1 See E. J. Sawyer, Bird Lore, 1908, p. 246. 

 - Field Notes, p. 56. 

 3 Pages 15, 16. 



