266 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Morton (1637), writing concerning the heath hens, which he called 

 " pheysants," stated that these birds were like the pheasant hen of 

 England in size but were rough footed and had " stareing " feathers 

 about the neck. The birds, according to Morton, were so common 

 that they seldom wasted a shot upon them. The writings of many 

 others who followed indicated that the birds were distributed along 

 the Atlantic seaboard from Maine and Massachusetts southward to 

 Virginia and possibly the Carolinas. They were by no means evenly 

 distributed over this region, but were restricted to certain areas 

 whose features and productions were suitable for their existence. 

 There were large heavily timbered areas that probably were never 

 visited by the heath hen. In favorable localities, such as the brushy 

 plains of eastern Massachusetts, they were abundant. Thomas 

 Nuttall (1832) wrote as follows: "According to information I have 

 received from Governor Winthrop, they were so common on the 

 ancient brushy site of Boston, that laboring people or servants stipu- 

 lated with their employers not to have Heath Hen brought to table 

 oftener than a few times a week." No published statement has ever 

 been found that more impressively reveals to us the abundance of 

 these birds in early colonial times. It was chiefly on the sandy scrub- 

 oak plains of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Long Island, New York, 

 New Jersey, and Pennsylvania that they existed in large numbers 

 when the white man first came to America. The birds served as a 

 valuable source of food, and because they were easily tricked and 

 killed they were exterminated at an early date in the more accessible 

 areas, and soon after 1840 were entirely gone from the mainland of 

 Massachusetts and the State of Connecticut. The birds persisted for 

 a longer time on Long Island, and a few continued to battle for 

 existence on the plains of New Jersey and favorable places among the 

 pines and scrub oaks of the Pocono Mountains in Northampton 

 County, Pa. Since 1870 the surviving members of this interesting 

 race have been restricted to Marthas Vineyard Island, off the south- 

 eastern coast of Massachusetts. 



Because of conflicting reports and uncertain statements we can 

 not be positive whether the heath hen was native to Marthas Vine- 

 yard or was introduced there from the mainland by man. In either 

 case it is truly remarkable that the heath hen, after being so greatly 

 depleted in numbers, has persisted for more than half a century in 

 this very restricted area where excessive interbreeding has occurred 

 and where the birds have been subjected to all the vicissitudes of 

 diseases, enemies, and other adverse conditions. 



In 1890 William Brewster (1890) made a careful census and at 

 that time estimated that there were 200 birds on the entire island. 

 Kentwood (1896) stated that there were less than 100 birds in 1896. 



