354 



Bird -Lore 



i. Forest fires, which, during the breeding season, swept over the island, 

 frequently three years in every five. The first act of the Commissioners, 

 therefore, in accepting the responsibility of the work, was to develop a system 

 of 'fire-stops' in the form of a cross, in such a way as to divide the oval in- 

 terior of the island into four divisions between the main roads. Further, a 

 checker-board system of lanes, thirty feet wide, which serve not only as 

 secondary fire-stops but, when planted with various species of grain, sun- 

 flowers, clover, etc., serve as feeding-places in close proximity to the scrubby 

 covering of dwarfed white oak, blueberry and sweet fern, has been begun. 



This will ultimately divide the 

 central portion of the island 

 into squares of about thirty 

 acres each. Gunners, either 

 when rabbit-hunting or cross- 

 ing the island to the gunning 

 stands on the South Shore, 

 .formerly shot the Heath Hen, 

 particularly during the winter 

 when, perched upon the tops 

 of scrubby white oaks, they 

 offered a conspicuous mark. 

 The development of local public 

 sentiment has stopped this. 



2 . The annual crop of house 

 cats brought to the island by 

 summer cottagers and then left 

 behind for convenience, or deli- 

 berately, to avoid responsibility 

 of humanely ending one or more 

 of their nine lives, taken out 

 into the interior of the island 

 and there dropped. On account 

 of mild winters and abundant 

 food, these cats find very favor- 

 able environment, and are very deadly to the birds. 



3. The presence of considerable numbers of Hawks, particularly Red- 

 tailed, Red-shouldered, Sharp-shinned and Marsh Hawks. Examination by 

 Dr. A. K. Fisher of the Biological Survey of a series of forty- two stomachs of 

 Marsh Hawks killed on the reservation disclosed the presence either of young 

 Heath Hens or of insectivorous birds in all except three. As the Marsh 

 Hawk is generally regarded as beneficial, Dr. Fisher points out that this 

 species on Martha's Vineyard has acquired a perverted appetite. This is 

 possibly due to the fact that the peculiar environment of dense scrubby 





y^;£&» 





HEATH HEN 



Note the neck-tufts which are erected in the 



preceding picture. 



