What is "heath hen"

Heath \Heath\ (h[=e]th), n. [OE. heth waste land, the plant heath, AS. h[=ae][eth]; akin to D. & G. heide, Icel. hei[eth]r waste land, Dan. hede, Sw. hed, Goth. hai[thorn]i field, L. bucetum a cow pasture; cf. W. coed a wood, Skr. ksh[=e]tra field. [root]20.]

1. (Bot.)

   1. A low shrub ( Erica vulgaris or Calluna vulgaris), with minute evergreen leaves, and handsome clusters of pink flowers. It is used in Great Britain for brooms, thatch, beds for the poor, and for heating ovens. It is also called heather, and ling.

   2. Also, any species of the genus Erica, of which several are European, and many more are South African, some of great beauty. See Illust. of Heather.

2. A place overgrown with heath; any cheerless tract of country overgrown with shrubs or coarse herbage.

   Their stately growth, though bare, Stands on the blasted heath.
   --Milton

   Heath cock (Zo["o]l.), the blackcock. See Heath grouse (below).

   Heath grass (Bot.), a kind of perennial grass, of the genus Triodia ( Triodia decumbens), growing on dry heaths.

   Heath grouse, or Heath game (Zo["o]l.), a European grouse ( Tetrao tetrix), which inhabits heaths; -- called also black game, black grouse, heath poult, heath fowl, moor fowl. The male is called heath cock, and blackcock; the female, heath hen, and gray hen.

   Heath hen. (Zo["o]l.) See Heath grouse (above).

   Heath pea (Bot.), a species of bitter vetch ( Lathyrus macrorhizus), the tubers of which are eaten, and in Scotland are used to flavor whisky.

   Heath throstle (Zo["o]l.), a European thrush which frequents heaths; the ring ouzel.

1. n. extinct prairie chicken [syn: Tympanuchus cupido cupido]

2. female black grouse [syn: grayhen, gray hen]

The heath hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido) was a distinctive subspecies of the greater prairie chicken, Tympanuchus cupido, a large North American bird in the grouse family, or possibly a distinct species, that became extinct in 1932.

Heath hens lived in the scrubby heathland barrens of coastal North America from southernmost New Hampshire to northern Virginia in historical times, but possibly south to Florida prehistorically. The prairie chickens, Tympanuchus species, on the other hand, inhabited prairies from Texas north to Indiana and the Dakotas, and in earlier times in mid-southern Canada.

Heath hens were extremely common in their habitat during Colonial times, but being a gallinaceous bird, they were hunted by settlers extensively for food. In fact, many have speculated that the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving dinner featured heath hens and not wild turkey. By the late 18th century, the heath hen had a reputation as poor man's food for being so cheap and plentiful; somewhat earlier Thomas L. Winthrop had reported that they lived on the Boston Common (presumably when it was still used to graze cows, etc.) and that servants would sometimes bargain with a new employer for not being given heath hen for food more often than two or three days a week.