322 
TETllAO CUPIDO. 
“ The statute declares, amoujr other things, that the 
person who shall kill any heath-hen within the counties 
of Suffolk or Queens, between the 1st day of April and 
the 5th day of October, shall, for every such offence, 
forfeit and pay the sum of two dollars and a half, to be 
recovered, with costs of suit, by any |)crson who shall 
prosecute for the same, before any justice of the peace, 
in either of the said counties : the one half to be paid 
to the plaintifl', and the other half to the overseers of 
the poor; and, if any heath-hen, so killed, shall he 
found in the possession of any jierson, he shall he 
deemed guilty of the offence, and suffer the penalty. 
But it is provided, that no defendant shall he convicted, 
unless the action shall he brought ivithiu three months 
after the violation of the law.* 
“ The country selected by these exquisite birds 
requires a more particular description. You already 
understand it to be the midland and interior district ot 
tlie island. The soil of this island is, generally S])eaking, 
a sandy or gravelly loam. In the parts less adapted to 
tillage, it is more of an unmixed sand. This is so 
much the case, that the shore of the beaches beaten by 
the ocean affords a material from which glass has been 
prepared. Silicious grains and particles predominate 
in the region chosen by the heath-hens or grouse- 
Here there are no rocks, and very few stones of auf 
kind. This sandy tract a|)pears to be a dereliction oj 
the ocean, hut is, nevertheless, not doomed to total 
sterility. Many thousand acres have been reclaimed 
from tile wild state, and rendered very productive to 
man ; and within the towns frequented by these birds 
• The ilqetor lias piobahly forgotten a circumstance of rather > 
ludicrous kind that occurred at the passing of this law, and whir 
was, not lung ago, related to me liy uiy friend Mr Gardiner, a 
Gardiner’s Island, Long Island. The bill was entitled, “ An 
for the preservation of hcath-Iien and otlier game.” The hones 
cliairman of the Assembly, no sportsman, I suppose, read the tip - 
“ An Act for the preservation ot Ihathe.» and other game !” "‘hir 
seemed to astonish the northern members who could not see t 
propriety of preserving Indians, or any other Heathen, 
