TRANSPLANTING AMERICAN GAME BIRDS 531 



an importation of these birds turned out in Massachu- 

 setts. He says: 



"In the early spring of 1884 or 1885, six pairs of 

 prairie hens brought from Iowa were liberated by Mr. 

 Robert B. Nesbitt, of Cambridge, at various points 

 along Concord Avenue, between Belmont and Concord. 

 He tells me that he was afterwards informed on 

 somewhat questionable authority, however that sev- 

 eral of these birds reared broods of young that season. 

 I can vouch for the fact that a year or two later an adult 

 male spent most of the spring in a grain field near the 

 village of Carlisle, Massachusetts, where it was seen 

 by my friend, Mr. George H. Robbins, and several of 

 his neighbors. 



"Another bird of the same sex was met with by Mr. 

 Walter Faxon in the Fresh Pine Swamps (on the Ar- 

 lington side of Little River) on May 14, 1892. The 

 latter instance may be taken to indicate that at least a 

 few of these grouse may have succeeded in maintain- 

 ing themselves for a number of years, but there are no 

 good reasons for believing that any of them are still 

 living or have left living descendants. In short, the at- 

 tempts to establish them permanently in the Cambridge 

 region, as well as in other certain parts of Massachu- 

 setts where they were liberated about the same time, 

 have evidently proved a complete failure." 



Efforts have been made to naturalize various Amer- 

 ican game birds in England, but so far as known, with 

 no permanent success, except in the case of the turkey, 

 and this only as a domestic bird. In 1861 Mr. Grant- 



