TRANSPLANTING AMERICAN GAME BIRDS 529 



estate. Their nests filled with eggs were found along 

 the fences of the fields near the meadows. The birds 

 became tame, visiting the cattle yards, and feeding near 

 the buildings of the farm. They multiplied rapidly. A 

 law was passed by the Maryland legislature protecting 

 them from gunners. The birds seemed to like the large 

 salt meadows of the estate, and exhibited but little fear 

 of strangers. Unfortunately for the birds, a number of 

 terrapin hunters from New Jersey ascended the bay 

 and river in their small vessels. Seeing these tame 

 birds on the meadows, the Jerseymen commenced a 

 war of extermination upon them, which soon resulted 

 in the destruction of almost the entire lot. A work- 

 man on Dr. PurneH's estate informed me that he had 

 seen eighteen prairie chickens in the cornfield, near the 

 house, in November of the present year. It was the 

 only covey left by the Jersey terrapin hunters, who 

 came up from Chincoteague Inlet. The same gentle- 

 man who sent these fine birds to Dr. Purnell is about 

 to send down from New Jersey the ruffed grouse, 

 called in that State and Pennsylvania, the pheasant. 

 There are no ruffed grouse on the Peninsula." 



In Forest and Stream of Nov. 25, 1880, Mr. C. S. 

 Wescott reported that a half-grown prairie chicken had 

 been brought to Mr. John Krider, of Philadelphia, for 

 mounting, the bird having been sent from lower Dela- 

 ware or Maryland with a lot of quail to a Philadelphia 

 game dealer. The bird was not preserved. Mr. Wes- 

 cott believed and no doubt he was right about it that 

 this was a descendant of the birds liberated in Mary- 



