BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 387 



Hills in 1836. Turnbull (1869) says, "It is now very rare; a 

 few are still met with in Munroe and Northampton Counties, 

 Pa.; within the last year or two it has been found on the 

 Jersey plains." 



The Heath Hen seems to have been exterminated earlier in 

 the neighborhood of Boston than elsewhere; but Brewster quot- 

 ing notes of a conversation with Mrs. Eliza Cabot, states that 

 the assertion is made that Mrs. Cabot saw a "prairie grouse" 

 in Newton in her youth (probably about the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century), and another (on Cape Cod), after her 

 marriage (probably about 1812) . Judd, in his history of Hadley, 

 quotes the statement of Levi Moody of Granby to the effect 

 that the Heath Hen had not been seen on the plains of Spring- 

 field for about fifty years. This would fix the date of its dis- 

 appearance from that part of the Connecticut valley at about 

 1812 or 1813. Dr. Timothy Dwight published the statement in 

 1821 that the Grouse was no longer common in New England. 

 Between that date and 1840 it disappeared from the mainland 

 of Massachusetts. Audubon (1835) quotes Mr. David Eckley, 

 who says that "fifteen or twenty years ago" it was common 

 to see as many Heath Hens in a day on Martha's Vineyard 

 "as we now see in a week." The Heath Hen was introduced 

 by the Forbes family on the island of Naushon, where it was 

 not native, and it soon disappeared. About 1888 Mr. E. H. 

 Thompson told me that he had seen the species in his early 

 days at Falmouth, on the mainland, and that his father killed 

 two, which were preserved and presented to Col. E. B. Stod- 

 dard of Worcester, Mass. Mr. William Brewster, however, be- 

 lieves that these birds were introduced Prairie Chickens. In 

 1876 Minot asserted that the Heath Hen was found no more 

 on Naushon and probably was extinct on Martha's Vineyard. 

 Subsequent inquiry proved that it was still extant. In 1877 

 foxes and raccoons were introduced on the island and prob- 

 ably helped to reduce the numbers of the Heath Hen. Brewster 

 estimated in 1890 that there were from one hundred and 

 twenty to two hundred birds on Martha's Vineyard left over 

 from the previous winter. Mr. C. E. Hoyle asserts that in 

 1892-93 men who had watched the birds closely stated that 



