254 



Bird - Lore 



The bird givesone the impression of admu'able adaptation to the open country, — 

 a lar<^e, muscular, hardy, vigorous bird, able to withstand snow and sleet, in size 

 equal or even exceeding the Ruffed Grouse in weight. Inhabiting open fields 

 and pastures, subsisting on insects, leaves, seeds and wild berries, in a country 

 where the absence of foxes and raccoons reduces the numbers of its enemies prac- 

 tically to cats, men, skunks, field-mice and rarely some species of hawks, the 

 problem of maintaining and bringing back the bird to its former abundance 

 seems practicable. 



Of the total number, twenty-one, which we observed on May i and 2, twenty 

 were plainly males; of the sex of one we were uncertain. 



On June 4, a set of nine Heath Hen's eggs was taken and placed under a ban- 

 tam hen, selected for this purpose because she appeared to be unusually tract- 

 able; but on June 20, when one of the chicks hatched it was immediately killed 

 by the hen, which attacked it viciously before it was entirely out of the shell. The 



THE HEATH HEN GROLl' IS TMK A.MKRICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



The nest and eggs are shown in silu in the preceding illustration 



Photographed by J. Otis Wheelock 



