![]() ![]() George died on July 10, 1910, leaving Martha the sole representative of her once abundant species.ġ6. The last pair was at the Cincinnati Zoo, named after George & Martha Washington. The last wild passenger pigeon was shot with a bb gun by 12 year old Press Clay Southworth in Sargents, Ohio on March 22, 1900ġ5. This gave rise to the term ‘stool pigeon’ which means an ‘informer”, a “tattletale”, or a “snitch’.ġ4. Others would respond to the distressed bird, only to be shot or netted. Taking advantage of their social behavior, hunters would capture a bird, tie its leg to a stool, and place it in an open field. In one organized hunt, people gathered killed over 250,000 passenger pigeons in one day. Profession hunters were sent to kill the birds in mass numbers and send them back to feed people living in cities.ġ2. Hunting was easy and simply involved pointing a gun in the air and shooting.ġ1. The passenger pigeon was a cheap, common food in colonial times. The nesting colonies were called “cities” because so many birds nested in the same tree, even breaking branches off of trees and leaving over 1 foot of poop under the “city”.ġ0. The flocks were so loud they could be heard several miles away.ĩ. ![]() It is estimated they could fly over 60 mph.Ĩ. These flocks that passed by could number over a million, blocking out the sun for hours and leaving bird poop, making it looked like it had snowed on a summer’s day.ħ. The passenger pigeon got its name from the French word, ‘passager’ meaning “passer by” due to its vast migrations.Ħ. The population once numbered between 3 - 5 billion birds.ĥ. They were a member of the Columbidae family which includes pigeons, doves, and the dodo.Ĥ. The female was slightly smaller and all that olive color.ģ. Their back was an olive color with black spots. The male passenger pigeon was 16 inches long with a bluish gray head and orange chest. The passenger pigeon’s range once covered the entire eastern woodland region of North America from Florida to southern Canada, west, ending where the Great Plains began.Ģ. ![]()
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