HEATH HEN. 
ARTHA’S VINEYARD, an island off the coast of 
Massachusetts, is the last stronghold of the Heath 
Hen, which formerly dwelt in various parts of that State, 
as well as in Connecticut, on Long Island, on Hempstead 
Plains, and other localities, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 
vania. It may also have ranged over a greater part of 
the Middle States. It closely resembles the Pinnated 
Grouse of the Western States, and it would require an 
expert to distinguish readily the points of difference 
between them. But still in coloring, shape of the lance- 
olate neck feathers of the male, short tarsus, and gen- 
erally smaller size, it has sufficient differences to be 
classed as a distinct species. 
The Heath Hen is, now at all events, a woodland bird 
and dwells among the almost impregnable tracts of 
scrubby oaks and pines which cover perhaps an area 
of forty square miles, and comprise about all the wooded 
portion of Martha’s Vineyard. Within this limited area 
several hundred birds are assembled, the last remnant 
of the great host that at one time was spread over a 
number of the Atlantic States. The nature of the coverts 
they frequent, difficult for man to penetrate, and their 
habit of remaining almost continually in the thick woods, 
insures that protection which will probably preserve the 
species, even in its diminished numbers, for a long time 
to come. Living thus almost entirely in these woods 
of scrub oaks, the birds feed on the acorns that lie scat- 
tered over the ground, occasionally wandering out into 
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