72 GALLINACEOUS BIRDS GROUSE 



Mass. Here they are strictly protected, and Brewster 

 says they are in no present danger of extermination. 

 According to present calculations there are not more 

 than two or three hundred birds remaining. 



From this source the clubs of Massachusetts and 

 Long Island might possibly restock their club grounds, 

 if the game officers of Massachusetts would permit it, 

 and the experiment is well worth trying, since this 

 grouse would prove a valuable addition to any game 

 preserve. The experiment was once tried of stocking 

 the preserve of the Robin's Island Club, on the island 

 of that name in Peconic Bay, with prairie-grouse from 

 the West, but the birds all flew away, probably to Con- 

 necticut, since one was reported to have been seen 

 there. 



Brewster says the heath-hen weighs on an average 

 one pound less than the prairie-grouse. Samuels, in 

 his "Northern and Eastern Birds" (published in 1883), 

 gives the pinnated grouse, or prairie-hen, as a former 

 inhabitant of Massachusetts and other Eastern States, 

 and says it is not now to be found in this section, ex- 

 cept on Martha's Vineyard. 



A friend of the writer shot one of these birds some 

 years ago on Martha's Vineyard, brought it to New 

 York and had it mounted by a taxidermist. Upon 

 learning of the penalty for his offence, however, he was 

 not much inclined to discuss the occurrence. 



