A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction Author: Joel Greenberg | Language: English | ISBN:
B00GC53ACM | Format: EPUB
A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction Description
The epic story of why passenger pigeons became extinct and what that says about our current relationship with the natural world.When Europeans arrived in North America, 25 to 40 percent of the continent’s birds were passenger pigeons, traveling in flocks so massive as to block out the sun for hours or even days. The downbeats of their wings would chill the air beneath and create a thundering roar that would drown out all other sound. John James Audubon, impressed by their speed and agility, said a lone passenger pigeon streaking through the forest “passes like a thought.” How prophetic—for although a billion pigeons crossed the skies 80 miles from Toronto in May of 1860, little more than fifty years later passenger pigeons were extinct. The last of the species, Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914.
As naturalist Joel Greenberg relates in gripping detail, the pigeons’ propensity to nest, roost, and fly together in vast numbers made them vulnerable to unremitting market and recreational hunting. The spread of railroads and telegraph lines created national demand that allowed the birds to be pursued relentlessly. Passenger pigeons inspired awe in the likes of Audubon, Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and others, but no serious effort was made to protect the species until it was too late. Greenberg’s beautifully written story of the passenger pigeon paints a vivid picture of the passenger pigeon’s place in literature, art, and the hearts and minds of those who witnessed this epic bird, while providing a cautionary tale of what happens when species and natural resources are not harvested sustainably.
- File Size: 4343 KB
- Print Length: 304 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1 edition (January 30, 2014)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00GC53ACM
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,224 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Outdoors & Nature > Birdwatching - #39
in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals > Birds & Birdwatching > Field Guides - #54
in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Field Guides
- #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Outdoors & Nature > Birdwatching - #39
in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals > Birds & Birdwatching > Field Guides - #54
in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Field Guides
On 1 September 2014 there will be a centennial of a sad event. One hundred years ago, the very last passenger pigeon died. We have wiped out plenty of other species, but we know for sure the very date that this one left forever, and we also know just how much we lost because of the huge numbers and economic importance the birds once had. It has been many decades since a book was devoted to passenger pigeons and their fate, and this one seems as if it will be definitive: _A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction_ (Bloomsbury) by natural historian Joel Greenberg. For all the sadness of its subject (and all the reflections it must bring about what humans are doing to other species all around the world), this is a fascinating collection of passenger pigeon lore for those of us who will never see the enormous flocks of the birds, or (given what people do) get to taste one.
It is astonishing to read about the huge numbers of these birds; there are some tall tales about their populations, but even the verified reports will strain a reader’s credulity, as we simply do not know anything comparable now. John James Audubon in 1813 recorded a flight along the Ohio River that blotted out the sun and took three days to pass. The birds (unlike the rock pigeons that were brought here by Europeans) were native to North America, and had evolved to rove over the billions of acres looking for nut-bearing trees, like oaks. The birds were tasty, and the indigenous people knew it and appreciated the meals on the wing that were easy to catch, as did the earliest settlers. Not only were they tasty, but they were just so available. Shoot into the flock and bring down dozens, or wave a club through the mass, or throw rocks, or use nets or traps.
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