528 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



a traveler and canoeist, and was printed in Forest and 

 Stream in December, 1874. It tells of the introduction 

 of the pinnated grouse and two species of Pacific Coast 

 quail in eastern Maryland. The essential parts of 

 his letter are as follows : 



"About five years since a resident of Philadelphia 

 sent to Dr. F. J. Purnell, near Berlin, Worcester 

 County, Maryland, a few pairs of prairie chickens and 

 a covey of both the valley and mountain partridge, or 

 quail. Dr. Purnell has an estate of fifteen hundred 

 acres lying along the banks of Newport Creek, which 

 stream flows into Sinepuxent Bay, on the eastern shore 

 of Maryland. Since the war, this estate has been 

 worked for the Doctor by his tenants. Much of it is 

 woodland and salt meadows. The partridges were for 

 some time kept confined in the house and then were 

 set at liberty. They soon disappeared, except one pair, 

 which returned daily to the kitchen door to be fed. For 

 some cause the pair went to a neighbor's house, on the 

 same estate, and for some weeks were fed from the 

 kitchen door. This pair of birds nested in the garden 

 near the house, and raised a brood of young birds. The 

 covey left their old quarters, and were heard from but 

 once after their departure. A person reported that he 

 saw the covey of 'California quails on the other side of 

 the creek/ This was two years since. It is now sup- 

 posed that these partridges have been shot by gunners 

 or have died from natural causes. 



"The prairie chickens adapted themselves to their 

 new home with but little trouble to the proprietor of the 



