52 FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
“ ‘ New York, Sept. 19, 1810. 
u 1 Dear Sir, —It gives me much pleasure to reply to your 
letter of the 12th inst., asking of me information concerning the 
Grouse of Long Island. 
“ ‘ The birds, which are known there emphatically by the name 
of Grouse, inhabit chiefly the forest range. This district of the 
island may be estimated as being between forty and fifty miles 
in length, extending from Bethphage, in Queen’s County, to the 
neighborhood of the Court-house, in Suffolk. Its breadth is not 
more than six or seven. For though the island is bounded by 
the Sound, separating it from Connecticut on the north and the 
Atlantic Ocean on the south, there is a margin of several miles 
on each side in the actual possession of human beings. 
u ‘ The regions in which these birds reside lie mostly within the 
towns of Oysterbay, Huntington, Islip, Smithstown and Brooklyn; 
though it would be incorrect to say that they were not to be met 
with sometimes in River Head and Southampton. This territory 
has been defined by some sportsmen as situated between Hemp¬ 
stead Plain on the west and Shinnecock Plain on the east. 
u i The more popular name for them is Heath-Hens. By this 
they are designated in the act of our Legislature for the preser¬ 
vation of them and of other game. I well remember the passing 
of this law. The bill was introduced by Cornelius J. Bogart, 
Esq., a Member of Assembly from the city of New York. It 
was in the month of February, 1791, the year when, as a repre¬ 
sentative from my native county of Queen’s, I sat for the first 
time in Legislature. 
“ 4 The statute declares among other things, that u the person 
who shall kill any Heath-Hen within the counties of Suffolk or 
Queen’s, between the 1st day of April and the 5th day of Octo¬ 
ber, shall for any such offence forfeit and pay the sum of two 
dollars and a half, to be recovered with costs of suit by any per¬ 
son who shall prosecute for the same before any Justice of the 
Peace in either of said counties, the one half to be paid to plain¬ 
tiff 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 per 
