Show 5 S hr e pa passing s s ing 0 f liecht heair k hen fal 1 gw f t axy r 0 Q W AP 0 04 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON N 1914 there died in cincinnati a famous native american martha was her name and her fame consisted consS sled ol of the tact fact that she was tile the last of her race tile the sole survivor ot of the countless millions of passenger pigeons which once darkened the sides shies in their flight in the mississippi I 1 valley today somewhere in the protecting scrub oak which covers the green plains of marthas vineyard there wanders manders another native american who Is the successor to the unique position once held by martha he bears no man given name tor for where martha died in capthi ty he be is spending his last years in the freedom of a vast reservation which w was created 20 years ago to save his species from extinction but tile the effort has failed for today this single health lien hen a male on marthas vineyard is the last of ills his race when the earliest settlers came to new england the heath hen was the most abundant of all game birds in the last east being distributed from cape ann to virginia and especially abundant 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 walli their masters that it should nut not lie be served to them as their food oftener than a few times a week but when the settlers began cutting off tile the forests the decline of the heath lien hen started the spread of civilization and the increasing number of cats and dogs log M which probed upon its young further decimated the heath lien hen and by a century ago they were gone from the mainland of massachusetts albl dougli a few lingered for another decade or two on outer long island arid and on the jersey plains eventually it was discovered that the island of Mart marthas lias vineyard off the massachusetts coast was the only place where these birds could be found and even there they were engaged in what seemed a hopeless struggle against death in they were here reported extinct and the introduction of foxes fose and raccoons to the island the fal frd lowing year made the death of the arice scorn certain but somehow the heath liens established reestablished re thern themselves in the early OOs Willi william aln bierster Biow ster reckoned that liere there might be birds left on the island tile the grass tire of is 94 lulled their breeding ground and observers h could find bud only fhe birds that autumn in 1897 a hunter alth a bird dog failed to start a single bird yet again they came back only to suffer in another rare fire in massachusetts chu game wardens set the heath hen population at twenty one in and at fifty or more in 1008 then the state took a hand band 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 another fire swept over the heath hen reservation and that autumn great flights of goshawks gos hawks descended on the island and preyed on the survivors in 1917 fever feer than heath hens were left these increased to in more ore than in 1922 nhen iben a cold wet season almost wiped out the colony coloni perhaps fifty birds were left in 1923 possibly thirty in 1027 1927 despite the care ot of the state and of the marthas vineyard rod and gun club despite distribution of food cultivation of closer er and sunflowers sun flowers despite the destruction of cats and rats and crows arid hawks bawks the colony dwindled steadily and now there Is only one left prof alfred 0 gross of bowdoin liow doln college aho who vho for iveral years had made an annual census of the heath liens on the island returned to bo boton boston ton recently and submitted his annual report in it lie e said during the year IMS 1028 the number of heath hens dwindled from three jo one lone bird this bird was alive ni at the time of the annual census taken march 30 to april 8 3 1929 though suggestions bave been made to ta the th state art department depart mant of con aj r V go 4 atlon to collect and preserve this last bird for science it has been allowed to live its normal life among the jhb scrub oaks on the sandy plains of manilas Mart lias vineyard island the bird continued to visit tile the farm of james green west tisbury during the early spring of 1929 1029 and was reported as late as may 11 after that date as was the custom of the heath hen in tile the past this individual disappeared among the derise dense scrub oaks to lie ine in seclusion during the summer months in october after going through the ordeal of boulting moul ting it again appeared at tile the breon farm to announce to the world that it was still alive it was seen it at irregular intervals during the lie winter and since the fist first warm lays days of march it has made dilly daily ifsits to the traditional boo booming ining field the old bendow along the state lilg highway hway beti between een Kd guton and west tisbury in a place less than a hundred yards distance from mr greens house almost simultaneously with the announcement no that the heath lien was traversing tile the last mile of its road to extinction came the news also that the supposedly extinct passenger pigeon had staged a comeback come back at least two michigan men robert U H wright munising Mun MunI ising publisher and dr samuel II 11 landes of traverse city both of whom knew the passenger pigeon in the days of its abundance declare that within recent months they have seen passenger pigeons in northern michigan wright ills his wife andson and son declare that from a distance of 10 feet they saw two adult pigeons sitting in the road near Mun munising ising and doctor landes and his brother brot lier state that they saw a flock of approximately fifteen between kokoro kokomo ind and indianapolis while driving from florida to michigan william B mershon of saginaw naw one of americas lending leading authorities on the subject and prof I 1 N norman orman A wood of the university of mich igan say there Is not tile the remotest chance for the survival of a single passenger pigeon reports have long been received ot of the pigeons presence in various localities but investigation has proved the observers tails mistaken usually tile the passenger pigeon was found to be a mourning dove or the band tailed pigeon from the west the extermination of the passenger pigeon vas anns accomplished e eien een en more swiftly than that of the heath hen toie state of michigan was their pran cipal nesting grounds and their rook erles eries in the northern part of 0 that state co vered covered dozens of 0 square miles with as many as a hundred nests each occupied by one or two squabs squats in a single tree the farmers considered them a pest anil and the slaughter of the birds which began in the sixties reached its high tide in the seventies when the commercial possibilities of the birds were vere realized no one tool took steps to regulate tho slaughter for the supply was considered unlimited no matter how many thousands or even millions were wera killed the enormous flocks stilt still streamed out of the south in april ail they still darkened the sun broke I 1 the brandies branches from trees by their weight their rookeries rook eries still filled tile woods then shortly after ISSO the pigeons suddenly disappeared pigeons were observed near cadillac in but disappeared a month lifter after their arrival they were traced northward as tar far as oden emmet county cou rity and are presumed to have crossed the straits of mackinaw into the upper peninsula or ontario after no large flocks were sees seen any here and the appearance of a single bird binl was considered worthy of mention in scientific journals another american bird which Is now extinct arid and has been for nearly a hundred years Is the great rest auk it was different from any other amerlean american bird in that it could not fly although it had great powers of swimming and diving its native habitat was the coast and islands of the north atlantic arid and from the first arrival of white men on the shores of the new world they preyed upon these birds seeking out their eggs for food and killing the birds for their feathers the slaughter of the defenseless birds went on for more than two centuries when ahen it was suddenly discovered that the great auk was all but exterminated the last specimens a male and a female were killed on fire island oft off the southwestern coast of iceland in the north atlantic on june 3 1844 by the crew of a sloop which visited the island ft for a cargo of ment meat and feathers of other seafowl which inhabited the place today either cither mounted specimens or eggs of the great auk atik command huge sums whenever which is a rare occurrence they are offered for sale it Is estimated that there are about 70 eggs in existence today while the number of skins or mounted ape specimens does not exceed eighty the great auk arid and the passenger pigeon are extinct the heath hen Is nearing nearl cg extinction and not far behind it on the road to oblivion in spite of all the efforts that have been made to preserve them are other f ties cies notable among these are tile the majestic t le trumpeter swan which Is today a rarity even in zoos and the snowy egret which Is all but extinct because its dorsal plumage in the breeding season furnishes the much al aigrette grette for the me ornamentation ornamentation of nor hats and so widespread lias has been the destruct destruction ion of 0 our national bird the bald eagle that only rece recently a bill was introduced into congress forbidding the killing of an eagle except when it is caught attacking live stock in an effort to save it from the fate which has already overtaken some of our birds and la Is threat ening so BO many others |