1891 
May 12 
(no 3)
Mass. 
West Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard. - and in front of that 
is on one side of the latter. It must have been 
within the field of the glass when on the ground 
and I can hardly understand why I failed to 
see it although the broken, rutted ground 
covered the tufts of grass of various shades from 
bleached straw color to green, probably rendered it 
a difficult object to discern. As it rose it voided 
its excrement. It was not over 35 yds. from us 
when it chased the ground and I distinctly 
heard the whirr of its wings, a dull woodeny whirr 
as compared with that of a Partridge. This 
bird began sailing before it had gone 30 yds. 
It followed the same direction as the other 
two and we lost sight of it as soon as it 
crossed the crest of the ridge 100 yds. or so
away.
  We kept on to a small farm reclaimed from 
the wild scrub land about a year ago by a 
German settles and then returned to Scotts 
without seeing anything more of the Heath
Hens although we found their tracks and 
excrement in several places. Their foot prints 
resembled those of barnyard fowl being shaped 
thus: [diagram] the lateral toes inclined well forward 
instead of being spread nearly at right angles 
with the middle toe as with a Partridge track. 
Their excrement was convoluted & dry (all I saw
was old), very like a Partridge's. In several places we saw piles of horse dung which they had picked to pieces & scattered no doubt in search of undigested oats.
  On the way back I left the path and beat 
the scrub to our side crossing the crest of the