Show Passin 5 efine hen by ELMO SCOTT WATSON N 1914 there died in on a famous native american martha was her name and her fame consisted of the fact that she was the last of her race the sole survivor of the countless millions of passenger pigeons which once darkened the skies la their flight in the mississippi valley today somewhere in the protecting scrub oak which covers the green plains af marthas vineyard there wanders another native american who Is the successor to the alon once held by martha he bears no man given name for where martha died in captivity he Is spending ids last years in the freedom of a 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 marthas vineyard Is the last of his race when the earliest settlers came to stew england the heath ben was the most abundant of all game birds in the east being distributed from cape ana to virginia and especially abundant in the bowl ads 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 their masters that it should not be served to them as their food oftener than a few times a week but when the settlers began cutting off the forests the decline of the heath hen started the spread of civilization and the increasing number of cats and dogs which preyed upon its young further decimated the heath lien and by a century ago they were gone from the mainland of massachusetts although a few lingered for another decade or two on outer long island and on the jersey plains eventually it was discovered that the island of marthas 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 la 1870 they were reported extinct and the introduction of foxes and raccoons to the island the following year made the death of the race seem certain but somehow the heath hens established reestablished re themselves in the early OOs william brewster reckoned that there might be birds left on the island the grass fire of 1894 mined their breeding ground and observers could find only five birds that autumn in 1897 a hunter with a bird dog tailed to start a single bird yet again they came back only to buffer in another fire in 1000 massa game wardens set the heath hen population at twenty one in 1007 and at fifty or more in 1008 then the state took a band and gave the birds accle protection by 1910 the colony had grown to a thousand the foxes and raccoons were exterminated other pests were kept down but that summer an other alre swept oer the heath hen reservation and that autumn great flights 0 descended on the island and preyed on the survivors in 1817 fewer than heath hens were left these increased to more than in 1922 when a cold wet season almost wiped out the colony fifty birds were left in 1923 possibly thirty in 1927 despite the care of the state and of the marthas vineyard hod and gun club despite distribution of food cultivation of clover and sunflowers sun flowers despite the destroy uon of cats and rats and crows and hawks the colony dwindled steadily and now there Is only one left prof alfred 0 gross of bowdoin college who for several years had made an annual census of the heath bena on the island returned to boston recently and submitted his annual report in it he said during the year 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 30 to april 3 1929 suggestions have been made to the state apartment of con serration to collect and preserve last bird for science it has been allowed to live its 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 alsbury during the early spring of 1929 and was reported as late as hay 11 after that date as was the custom of the heath hen in the past this individual disappeared among the dense scrub oala to live in seclusion during the summer months in october after going through the ordeal of boulting moul ting it again appeared at tl e green farm to announce to the world that it wag still alive it was seen at irregular intervals during the winter and since the first warm days of march it has made dally visits to the traditional booming field the old meadow along the state highway between edgartown Edgar town and west tasbur bur in a place less than a hun dred yards distance from mr greens houe almost simultaneously with the an no that the heath hen wa traversing 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 II 11 wright publisher and dr samuel R landes of traverse city both of whom knew the passenger pigeon in the dais of its abundance declare that within recent months they have seen passenger pigeons in northern michigan aright his wife and son declare that from a distance of 10 feet they saw two adult pigeons sitting in the road near and doctor candea and his brother stats that aliey saw a flock of approximate ly fifteen between coomo ind and indianapolis while driving from flor ida to william B mershon of saginaw naw one of americas leading authorities on the subject and prof norm in A wood of the university of alch igan say there Is not the remotest chance tor the survival of a single passenger pigeon reports have long been received of the pigeons presence in various localities but alon has proved the observers mis taken usually the jasien pa sien ger pigeon was found to be a mourn ing dove or the band tailed pigeon from the west the extermination of the passenger pigeon was accomplished even more swiftly than that of the heath hen the state of michigan was their prin capal nesting grounds and their northern part of that cries in the state covered dozens of square miles with as many as a hundred nests each occupied by one or two squats squabs the farmers con tree in a single soldered them a pest and the slaughter of the birds which began in the six alea reached its high tide in the sev when the commercial atles of the birds were realized t i y if 3 no one took steps to regulate the slaughter for the supply was con unlimited no matter how many thousands or even millions were lulled the enormous flocks still streamed out of the south in april they still darkened the sun broke the branches from trees by their weight their rookeries rook eries still filled the woods then shortly after 1880 the pigeons suddenly disappeared pigeons mere observed near aadil lac in 1888 but disappeared a month after their arrival aliey were traced northward as far as oden emmet county and are presumed to have crossed the straits of mackinaw Mackl naw into the upper peninsula or ontario aft er 1883 no large flocks were seen any where and the appearance of a single bird was considered worthy of men alon in scientific journals another american bird which Is now and has been for near ly a hundred years Is the great auk it was different from any other amer lean bird in that it could not fly although it had great powers of swim and diving its native habitat was the coast and islands of the north atlantic and from the first ar rival 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 it was sud denly discovered that the great auk was all but exterminated the last specimens a male and a female were killed on fire island off the south western coast of iceland in the north atlantic on june 3 1844 by the crew of a sloop which visited the island for a cargo of meat and feathers of other seafowl which inhabited the place today either mounted sped mens or eggs of the great ank corn mand huge sums whenever which Is a rare occurrence they are offered tor sale it Is estimated that there are about 70 eggs in existence today the number of skins or mounted ape camens does not exceed eighty the great auk and the passe ngu pigeon are extinct the beatta ben Is henring 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 dee notable among these are tle majestic trumpeter swan which Is today a rarity even in zoos and the snowy egret which Is all but extinct because its dersal plumage in the breeding season furnishes the much sought aigrette for the ornamentation of hats and so widespread has been the destruction of our na bird the bald eagle that only recently a bill was introduced into congress forbidding the hilling of an eagle except when it Is caught attack ang live stock in an effort to save it from the fate which has already over tal en some of our birds and Is threat enang BO many ou t ft f t visy |