TvTar>anuc]ius ouPido . 
189V. 
Dec .30. 
(l'Io.2). 
I 
} 
strong an interest in the preservation of the Heath Hen to bo 
willing to hill more than three or four birds in any one sea- 
son but in the autumn of that year being convinced that the 
species was hopelessly near extinction he very properly decid- 
ed to obtain, for Ivir. Hoyle, as many specimens as possible of 
the few individuals that wore left. He succeeded in getting 
twelve birds, all members of a single covey and all that he 
could find. The following year (1395) he failed to meet with 
a single Heath Hen although he scoured every part of the island 
with good dogs, spending no less than twenty-five days in the 
search. One or two birds are reported to have been seen by 
other sportsmen during this year but none are hnovm to have 
been met with by anyone in 1896 or 1897. 
Hoyle says that the Heath Hens have always suffered a 
good deal from the depredations of the larger Kawhs as well as 
latterly, by. those of the Poxes ( introduced about ) for he 
has repeatedly found the remains of birds that had evidently 
been hilled by one or the other of these marauders a^-id he 
thinhs that at the very last they may have hunted down and 
destroyed the few stragglers that had escaped the sportsmen. 
He does not believe that either Hawhs or Poxes can be held 
responsible for the final result. On the contrary the simple 
truth is that the extinction of the Heath Hen has been caused 
partly by the short-sighted indifference and jealous greed of 
