_Tetrao cupido_ Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. X, p. 160 (1758--ex Catesby,
Carolina II, App. p. 1, pl. 1, 1743. "Habitat in Virginia"); Vieillot,
Gal. Ois. II, p. 55, p. 219 (1825).
_Pinnated Grouse_ Latham, Gen. Syn. II, 2, p. 740 (1783).
_Bonasa cupido_ Stephens, in Shaw's Gen. Zool. XI, p. 299 (1819--New
Jersey and Long Island).
_Cupidonia cupido_ Baird, B. N. Am. p. 628 (1860--partim); Maynard, B.
E. Massach. p. 138 (1870--Martha's Vineyard and Naushon Island);
Brewster, Auk 1885, p. 82 (Massachusetts).
_Cupidonia cupido var. cupido_ Baird, Brewer & Ridgway, N. Amer. B.
III, p. 440 (1874).
_Cupidonia cupido brewsteri_ Coues, Key N.A.B., App. p. 884 (1887).
_Tympanuchus cupido_ Ridgway, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. VIII, p. 355 (1885);
Bendire, Life-Hist. N. Amer. B. I, p. 93 (1892); Grant, Cat. B. Brit.
B. XXII, p. 77; Check-List N. Amer. B. Ed. II, p. 115, No. 306 (1895);
Hartlaub, Abh. Naturw. Ver. Bremen XIV, 1 (second ed. of separate copy,
p. 15) (1896).
Linnaeus' brief diagnosis is: "Tetrao pedibus hirsutis alis succenturiatis
cervicalibus." After the habitat he adds: "Color Tetricis feminae; vertex
subcristatus; a tergo colli duae parvae alae: singulae pennis quinque."
This diagnosis is taken from Catesby, who gives a fairly good description
and a recognizable coloured plate. He specially mentions that the
neck-tufts are composed of five feathers, and in his figure they are shown
to be much pointed. Catesby expressly states that he does not know exactly
from which part of America his specimen came--yet Linnaeus says "Habitat in
Virginia."
Formerly the Heath Hen inhabited New England and part of the Middle States
(Southern Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey, Nantucket, Eastern
Pennsylvania), but in 1887 Ridgway stated already that it was then
apparently extinct, except on Martha's Vineyard. About that time it was
still common on that island, inhabiting the woods and chiefly haunting oak
scrub and feeding on acorns. They were then "strictly protected by law,"
but this protection seems not to have been effectual, as from 1893 to 1897
a number were killed, skinned, and sold to various museums. This was,
perhaps, fortunate rather than unfortunate, because Mr. Hoyle (the man who
collected them) told us that in 1894 a fire destroyed many of them, and in
the fall of 1897 they were practically gone. But almost worse than this,
perhaps, two pairs of "Prairie Chicken" (_Tympanuchus americanus_) were
liberated and broods of young (of the latter apparently) were seen, so that
it {182} is to be feared that birds shot now on Martha's Vineyards Island
may have blood of _T. americanus_ in them, the two forms being closely
related, somewhat difficult to distinguish, and evidently sub-species of
each other. Nevertheless, a bird taken in 1901 was pronounced to be typical
_cupido_ by Mr. Brewster.
From these facts it is pretty clear that the Heath Hen is among the birds
the fate of which is sealed, and which, if not already exterminated or
mixed with foreign blood, will soon have disappeared. The footnote in the
Proceedings of the IV. International Ornithological Congress, p. 203, is
herewith corrected.
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