
EXTINCT BIRDS 49 

THE PTARMIGAN IN WINTER 
One of a series of four small groups showing this bird’s seasoned changes of color as brought about 
by molting and feather growth. 
flocks that vast numbers were slaughtered with ease, but the last indi- 
vidual died in captivity Sept. 1, 1914. The Heath Hen formerly had 
a wide range on our Atlantic seaboard, but as a game bird it was so 
continually persecuted, in and out of the breeding season, that it is 
now extinct except for a colony under protection on the island of Martha’s 
Vineyard. Specimens of all of these birds are shown here, the Dodo 
being represented by an incomplete skeleton and by a life-size repro- 
duction copied from an old Dutch painting. Others of our splendid 
game birds, such as the Trumpeter Swan and Eskimo Curlew, are 
nearly, if not quite, gone and more, like the Wood Duck and Wild Tur- 
key, will soon follow them if a reasonable close season and limited bag 
be not rigidly enforced. Still others—the beautiful Egrets and the 
Grebes, for example—have already gone far on the same road owing 
to the great demand for their plumage for millinery purposes. 
Also down the center of the hall, and in certain alcoves as well, are 
several cases designed to illustrate the general natural history of birds. 
