Bird Guide: Water Birds, Game Birds, and Birds of Prey East of the Rockies

by Chester A. Reed

HEATH HEN

306. Tympanuchus cupido. 17 in.

Neck feathers pointed; scapulars more broadly tipped with white; axillars always barred; top of head paler and always brownish. These differences will always separate this species from the very similar western bird. They were formerly found throughout Southern New England and the Middle States, their range meeting that of the [Prairie Hen], but now they are restricted to the island of Martha’s Vineyard, south of Mass., and probably the true form is extinct there for western birds have been liberated on the island and interbred with the natives.