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MARK CATESBY (1682-1749)

The Pigeon of Passage and the Red Oak

1722-6

RCIN 924836

The passenger pigeon was once one of the most numerous of birds. Catesby recorded that they migrated to Virginia and Carolina in ‘incredible numbers’ and that people would shoot them down from their balconies and roof-tops. As the prairies of North America were diminished by settlements, the flocks began to decline dramatically in size. In 1914 the passenger pigeon became extinct when the last survivor of the species died in Cincinnati Zoo.


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