Showing posts with label Catesby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catesby. Show all posts

Saturday, March 6, 2021

Passenger Pidgeon (Extinct Bird) with Red Oak Leaves and Acorns

Pigeon of Passage (Palumbus Migratorius) from The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (1754) by Mark Catesby (1683-1749). Original from The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. I have read so many accounts of this bird that was so plentiful at one time that they blackened the sky when migrations flew over. They were game birds and over hunting led to their extinction.
Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon, passed away on September 1, 1914, in the Cincinnati Zoo. She was believed to be the last living individual of her species after two male companions had died in the same zoo in 1910. Her remains are on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. Read more by searching Google for "Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon".