322 
TETRAO CUPIDO. 
“ The statute declares, among 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 5 th 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 person 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 plaintiff, and the other half to the overseers of 
the poor; and, if any heath-hen, so killed, shall be 
found in the possession of any person, he shall be 
deemed guilty of the offence, and suffer the penalty. 
But it is provided, that no defendant shall be convicted, 
unless the action shall be brought within 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 of 
the island. The soil of this island is, generally speaking, 
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 any 
kind. This sandy tract appears to be a dereliction of 
the ocean, but is, nevertheless, not doomed to total 
sterility. Many thousand acres have been reclaimed 
from the wild state, and rendered very productive to 
man ; and within the towns frequented by these birds 
* The doctor has probably forgotten a circumstance of rather a 
ludicrous kind that occurred at the passing of this law, and which 
was, not long ago, related to me by my friend Mr Gardiner, of 
Gardiner’s Bland, Long Island. The bill was entitled, <c An Act 
for the preservation of heath-hen and other game.” The honest 
chairman of the Assembly, no sportsman, I suppose, read the title, 
i( An Act for the preservation of Heathen and other game !” which 
seemed to astonish the northern members, who could not see the 
propriety of preserving Indians, or any other Heathen. 
