1893 
Mass 
Tympanuchus cup Ido 
Jan. 31 Martha'- s Vineyard .- Mr. Ofettram Bangs has just spent five days on 
to the Vineyard searching for Heath Hens. The Mass . Game Gommission- 
Feb .4 ers gave him written permission to trap five pairs for purposes 
of breeding and restoching suitable tracts of country on the 
mainland. He tooh with him a skilled trapper but the trip proved 
a total failure. The birds were so scarce that Mr. Bangs although 
assisted by a native hunter and his dog could find but two. One 
of these was seen in the plains brush country. It rose from the 
road more than two gunshots ahead and flew out of sight. The 
other was flushed by the dog in old oak woods ( the woods where 
Faxon and I fo\ind a Crow's nest in May 1891) where the trees are 
of a large size for this island. It flew out into the open and 
alighted in the middle of a large field. Y/hen approached a 
second time it rose very wild and went off towards the plains 
where the other bird was seen, making a flight of at least a mile 
and probably more. 
Mr. Bangs went all over Professor Shaler's 1600 acres without 
finding any trace of Heath Hens. The head farmer, an intelligent 
man familiar with tihecibirds, said, however, that there were at 
least five or six wintering there. Mr. Evans , alocal taxider- 
mist, who has an order from the Smithsonian Institute for a pair 
of the birds knew of two on Mr. Shaler's land but had no inten- 
tion of molesting them. In his(Mr. Evan's) opinion there are very 
few Heath Hens lefton the Vineyard. They were abundant three 
years ago but have since ggye^'ely from gunners, both 
