The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-07-04
ZHE HEAzH REN
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

!: !: !: !: !. !: e.
y
IL &Ei her name and her fame
IkN 81 consisted of the fact
I&2ssz that she was the last
Sc of her race, the sole sur
.urzs-xl.s3I vivor of the countless
millions of passenger
pigeons which once darkened the skies
in their flight in the Mississippi val
ley. Today somewhere in the protect
ing scrub oak which covers the green
plains of Martha'S Vineyard there
wanderS another native American who
is the successor to the unique posi-
ton once held by Martha" He bears
no man-given name, for where Mar
tina" died in captivity he is spending
his last years in the freedom of
vast reservation which was created
20 years ago TO save his species from
extinction. But the effort has failed
for today this single health hen. a
male, on Martha's Vineyard is the
last of his race.
When the earliest settlers came to
New England the heath hen was the
most abundant of all game birds in
the East. being distributed from Cape
Ann to Virginia and especially abun-
dant in the lOwlands of Massachusetts,
Connecticut and Long Island. In fact,
in Governor Winthrops day this bird
was so common around Boston that
laborers ''bOund out" TO employers
stipulated in their agreements with
~ hot IL oh hn
served TO them as their food oftener
"than a few times a week" But when
the settlers began cutting off the for
estS the decline of the heath hen
started. The spread of civilization and
the increasing number of cats and dogs
which proved upon its young further
decimated the heath hen and by
century ago they were gone from the
mainland of Massachusetts, although
8 few fingered for another decade or
two on outer Long Island and on the
Jersey plains.
Eventually it was discovered that
the island of Martha's Vineyard off
the Massachusetts coast, was the only
place where these birds could be
found and even there they were en-
gagged in what seemed a hopeless
struggle against death.
In 1876 they were reported extinct
and the introduction of foxes and
racoons to the island the following
year made the death of the race seem
certain. But somehow the heath hens
Itch N
early '90s William Brewster reckoned
that there might be 200 birds left on
the island. The grass fire of 1894
ruined their breeding ground, and OBJ
servers could find only five birds that
autumn. In 1897 a hunter with a
bird dog failed to start single bird.
Yet again they came back, only to
suffer in another fire in 1906. MaSsa
chusetts game wardens set the heath
hen population at twenty-One in 1907
and at fifty or more in 1908. Then
the state took a hand and gave the
birds active protection.
BY 1916 the colony had grown to a
thousand. The foxes and raccoons
were eXterminated; other pests were
kept down. But that summer an
other fire swept over the heath hen
reservation, and that autumn great
flights of goshawks descended on the
island and preyed on the survivors.
In 1917 fewer than 100 heath hens
were left; these increased to more
than 400 in 1929, when a cold, wet
season almost wiped out the colony.
Perhaps fifty birds were left in 1923,
possibly thirty in 1927. Despite the
care of the state and of the Martha's
Vineyard Rod and Gun club, despite
distribution of food, cultivation of clo-
yer and sunflowers, despite the destruc-
tion of cats and rats and crows and
hawks, the colony dwindled steadily.
And now there is only one left. Prof.
Alfred o. Gross of Bowdoin college,
who for several years had made an
annual census of the heath hens on
the island, returned to Boston recent
ly and submitted his annual report.
In it he said:
During the year 1923 the number
Of heath hens dwindled from three
to one lone bird. This bird was alive
at the time of the annual census
taken March 80 to April 3, 1929.
Though suggestions have been made
TO the state department of con-
servalion to collect anG preserve this
last bird for science, it has been al
lowed to live it's normal life among
the scrub oaks on the sandy plains of
Marthas Vineyard Island.
"The bird continued to visit the
farm of James Green, West Tisbury,
during the early spring of 1929, and
was reported as late as May IL. After
that date, as was the custom of the
heath hen in the past, this individual
disappeared among the dense scrub
oaks to live in seclusion during the
summer months. In October, after
going through the ordeal of mOulting.
IL again appeared at the Green farm