38 
GROUSE FAMILY. 
they are easily hunted out, and are readily set, as they are 
not usually inclined to take wing. In the prairies, however, 
they not unfrequently rise to the low boughs of trees, and 
then, staring about without much alarm, they become an easy 
prey to the marksman. 
The ordinary weight of a full-grown bird is about three 
pounds, and they now sell, when they are to be had, in New 
York and Boston, from three to five dollars the pair. They 
have been raised under the common hen, but prove so 
vagrant as to hold out no prospect of domestication. 
This species is common now only in the prairie region of Indi- 
ana and Illinois and westward ; a few scattered flocks occur in 
isolated localities in Kentucky and southwestern Ontario. 
It is supposed that the Pinnated Grouse, which occurred in the 
Atlantic States in Nuttall’s day, should be referred to the Heath 
Hen, — a distinct race, a remnant of which is still found on Mar- 
tha’s Vineyard. 
HEATH HEN. 
Tympanuchus cupido. 
Char. Similar to the Prairie Hen, but reddish brown above, and 
beneath rusty white, barred with dark reddish brown ; neck tufts composed 
of four or five acutely lance-pointed feathers. 
AV.tA In woodland of scrub-oak or pine ; a .slight hollow, thinly lined 
with leaves and feathers. 
/yyf. 6-S; yellowish green and unspotted ; 1.70 X 1.25. 
This interesting bird was discovered in 1885 by Mr. William 
Brewster; or rather, to be more e.xact, at that date the discovery 
was made that the birds of Martha’s Vineyard were distinct from 
the Western Prairie Hen, — distinct in coloration as well as in 
habits, — the one being a bird of the open prairie, the other haunt- 
ing groves of scrub-oak or low pines, and feeding largely on acorns. 
Mr. Brewster tells us (“Auk,” January, 1885) that the bird is 
common on Martha’s Vineyard, and is so well protected as not 
likely to become extinct. 
