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Show ill) fin U) S3 & : O p 111:11111 HUTU HOC- - k-dOr By ELMO SCOTT WATSON dp-M & iSMM t 4f , V e .IN.1014 there died In Cln- CjiA M?iSf CfSfT , f M-fasJpMt I 'jTrl ci,mati a ftimus nntie w wyJS, Mg&Qffir VJ American. "Martha" was w ' i1 iiwiii vivor of the countless pigeons which once darkened the skies jC" efiP In their flight In the Mississippi val- SiSlnPo, W&ETi?$. ley. Todny somewhere in the protect- TCJC j,-tr j'JsJkSs ing scrub onk which covers the green PI&CgST J ' "SVY plains of Martha's Vineyard there , iff" "" 1 .S"f "MS 1 vfeSs. wanders another native American who H??,, s. 1 Sl&.& f S5? r',v j, is the successor to the unique posi- U , N ' V!y tlon once held by "Martha." He bears SjLA jtfk K - s ?A VlV. no man-given name, for where "Mar- . JSH A?4jSXV 3 & ,yi tha" died in captivity he is spending fffJt V$0 ft $ W V his last years la the freedom of a ? AM WT'Jl vast reservation which was created f f . J iX V &' Xvt 20 years ago to save his species from . 1 " r C V--' 'Jr extinction. But the effort has failed f3jt ,4 ) t JtrfH fl " - 7 .' V1"?J for today this single health hen, a fff iICl 3 1 ViS male, on Martha's Vineyard is the fJ fjaPiV-. si last of his race. MfT 1 ?&SS V When the earliest settlers came to ' f VS irS i--89SSw' New England the heath hen was the ft fjf V Jl most abundant of all game birds In I 4 -qkPw N s4rr the East, being distributed from Cape fAf. X J N. SJji Ann to Virginia and especially abun- W lf jJiL . I tlant in Uie lowlands of Massachusetts, f'Jliagliggjgg " XJS. j Connecticut and Long Island. In fact, y-jM 57eC?Si25? gH&tT c in Governor WinthroD's dav this bird WOWX qX!gr vMr-ux, y I By ELMO SCOTT WATSON L iiimi n1v there died In Cln- '1 Tf-& cinnatl a famous native w7 IS American. "Martlia" was jfvi B J her name and her fame Jt'i consisted of the fact Vw?j tlint 6lie was "le 'as' J LVf of ner rftce' tlie soIe 6ur-f 6ur-f i hmiiiii4 vivor of the countless millions of passenger pigeons which once darkened the skies in their flight in the Mississippi valley. val-ley. Todny somewhere in the protecting protect-ing scrub onk which covers the green plains of Martha's Vineyard there wanders another native American who is the successor to the unique position posi-tion once held by "Martha." He bears no man-given name, for where "Martha" "Mar-tha" died in captivity he is spending his 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 Martha's Vineyard is the last of his race. When the earliest settlers came to New England the heath hen was the most abundant of all game birds in the East, being distributed from Cape Ann to Virginia and especially abundant abun-dant In the lowlands of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Long Island. In fact, in Governor WinthroD's dav 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 for-ests 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 hen 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 Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast, was the only place where these birds could be found and even there they were engaged en-gaged in what seemed a hopeless struggle against death. In 1S7G they were reported extinct and the introduction of foxes and racoons to the island the following year made the death of the race seem certain. But somehow the heath hens re-established themselves. In the early "90s Willlajn Brewster reckoned that there might be 200 birds left on . the island. The grass fire of 1894 ruined their breeding ground, and observers ob-servers could find only five birds that autumn. In 1S97 a hunter with a bird dog failed to start a single bird. Xet again they came back, only to suffer in another fire in 1900. Massachusetts Massa-chusetts game wardens set the heath hen population at twentv-one in 1907 and at fifty or more in 190S. Then the state took a hand 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 an-other fire swept over the heath hen reservation, and that autumn great flights of goshawks descended on the Island and preyed on the survivors. In 1917 fewer than 100 heath hens .were left; these Increased to "more than 400 in 1922, when a cold, wet season almost wiped out the colony. Terbaps fifty birds were left in 1923, possibly thirty in 1927. Despite the care of the state and of the Martha's Vineyard Rod and Gun club, despite distribution of food, cultivation of clover clo-ver and sunflowers, despite the destruction destruc-tion of cats and rats and crows and hawks, the colony dwindled steadily. And now there Is only one left Prof. Alfred O. Gross of Bowdoin college, who for several years had made an annual census cf the heath hens on the island, returned to Boston recently recent-ly and submitted his annual report In it e said : , "Dtt-lng the year 1023 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. Though suggestions have been made (to the tat department of con servation to collect and preserve this last bird for science, It has been allowed al-lowed to live its normal life among the scrub oaks on the sandy plains of Martha's Vineyard Island. "The bird continued to visit the farm of James Green, West Tisbury, during the early spring of 1929, and was reported as late as May 11. After that date, as was the custom of the heath hen in the past, this individual disappeared among the dense scrub oaks to live in seclusion during the summer months. In October, after going through the ofdeal of moulting, it again appeared at the Green farm to announce to the world that it was still alive. "It was seen at irregular intervals during the winter, and since the first warm days of March it has made daily visits to the traditional 'booming' field, the old meadow along the state highway between Edgartown and West Tisbury, in a place less than a hundred hun-dred yards' distance from Mr. Green's house. Almost simultaneously with the announcement an-nouncement that the heath hen wras traversing the last mile of its road to extinction came the news also that the supposedly extinct passenger pigeon had staged a "come-back." At least two Michigan men, Robert H. Wright, Munising publisher, and Dr. Samuel R. 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 his wife and son declare that from a distance of 10 feet they saw two adult pigeons sitting in the road near Munising, and Doctor Landes and his brother state that they saw a flock of approximately approximate-ly fifteen between Kokomo, Ind., and Indianapolis, while driving from Florida Flor-ida to Michigan. William B. Mershon of Saginaw, one of America's leading authorities on the subject, and Prof. Norman A. Wood of the University of Michigan Mich-igan say there is not the remotest chance for the survival of a single passenger pigeon. Reports have long been received of the pigeon's presence in various localities, but Investigation Investiga-tion has proved the observers mistaken. mis-taken. Usually the psuedo "passenger "passen-ger pigeon" was found to be a mourning 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. Phe state of Michigan was their principal prin-cipal nesting grounds and their rookeries rook-eries in the northern part of that state covered dozens of square miles with as many as a huudred nests, each occupied by one or two squabs, in a single tree. The farmers considered con-sidered Uiem a pest and the slaughter of the birds which began in the sixties six-ties reached its high tide in the seventies, sev-enties, when the commercial possibilities possibil-ities of the birds were realized. J No one took steps to regulate the slaughter, for the supply was considered con-sidered unlimited. No matter how many thousands or even millions were killed, 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 still filled the woods. Then shortly after 18S0 the pigeons suddenly disappeared. Pigeons were observed near Cadillac Cadil-lac In 1SS8, but disappeared a month after their arrival. They were traced northward as far as Oden, Emmet county, and are presumed to have crossed the straits of Mackinaw into the Upper Peninsula or Ontario. After Aft-er 1888 no large flocks were seen anywhere, any-where, and the appearance of a single bird was considered worthy of mention men-tion in scientific journals. Another American bird which is now extinct and has been for nearly near-ly a hundred years is the great auk. It was different from any other American Amer-ican bird, in that it could not fly, although it had great powers of swimming swim-ming and diving. Its native habitat was the coast and islands of the North Atlantic and from the first arrival 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 suddenly 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 southwestern 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 specimens speci-mens or eggs of the great auk command com-mand 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 specimens spe-cimens does not exceed eighty. The great auk and the passenger pigeon are extinct. The heath hen is nearing extinction. And not far behind be-hind It on the road to oblivion, in spite of all the efforts that have been made to preserve them, are other species. spe-cies. Notable among these are the majestic trumpeter swan, which Is today to-day 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-sought much-sought aigrette for the ornamentation of women's hats. And so widespread has been the destruction of our national na-tional bird, the bald eagle, that only recently a bill was introduced Into congress forbidding the killing of an eagle, except when it Is caught attacking attack-ing live stock, in an effort to save it from the fate which has already overtaken over-taken some of our birds and is threatening threat-ening so many others. |