HEATH HEN 265 



the western form as the new species, because Tetrao cupido of Lin- 

 naeus was the eastern form from the fact that its habitat is given 

 as Virginia. The differences between the eastern and western birds 

 are so slight and the variations of the individuals so great that 

 ornithologists now concede that Brewster was not well justified in 

 the establishment of a new species. 



In prehistoric times the common ancestors of the heath hen and 

 the prairie chicken probably ranged in an uninterrupted distribu- 

 tion from the Atlantic seaboard to the plains east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. Later the birds of the East became separated from 

 those of the West, and as a result of this isolation and differences 

 in environment certain modifications arose that have resulted in the 

 establishment of the two geographical races — Tympanuchus cupido 

 cupido, the heath hen, and Tympanuchus cupido americanus, the 

 prairie chicken. 



The prairie chicken is still flourishing and in recent years has 

 been rapidly regaining its numbers in favorable sections of the 

 Middle West, but the heath hen has been unable to cope with the 

 changing conditions of its restricted environment, and to-day is 

 represented, so far as we can ascertain, by a single male individual, 

 which is living out its normal life on the scrub-oak plains of Marthas 

 Vineyard Island, Mass. 



The following account is made up primarily of modified excerpts 

 of the contributor's monograph on the heath hen (Gross, 1928) and 

 from subsequent annual census reports : 



Historical. — The heath hen is among the first of the American 

 birds to be mentioned in the writings of the early colonists who came 

 to our shores. There is, however, such a dearth of material concern- 

 ing the heath hen during these early times that we know but little 

 concerning the conditions under which it existed, and the records are 

 so incomplete that we are unable to determine with any degree of 

 accuracy its relative abundance and distribution prior to the nine- 

 teenth century. Some of the earlier American writers designated 

 the heath hen by the name " heathcocke," " pheysant," or " grous," 

 but their notes and descriptions are such that they can be clearly 

 referred to this species. William Wood (1635) in his New England 

 Prospect writes as follows : " Heathcockes and Partridges be com- 

 mon : he that is husband, and will be stirring betime, may kill halfe 

 dozen in a morning. The Partridges be bigger than they be in 

 England, the flesh of the Heathecocks is red, and the flesh of the 

 Partridge white, their price is four pence a piece." Wood resided 

 at what is now the city of Lynn in Massachusetts. His map included 

 Cape Ann and the Merrimac River ; hence it is evident that the heath 

 hen existed in northeastern Massachusetts in his day. Thomas 



