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Print: “Palumbus migratorius, the Pigeon of Passage"

 "Palumbus migratorious, the Pigeon of Passage," etching from Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, by Mark Catesby, London, England, ca. 1731-1734. Acc. #1984-147, 1

"Palumbus migratorious, the Pigeon of Passage," etching from
Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, by Mark Catesby,
London, England, ca. 1731-1734. Acc. #1984-147, 1

Mark Catesby, an English naturalist, published Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands between 1731 and 1743. It was the first printed account of the flora and fauna of North America. The book included 220 plates (which Catesby engraved himself) of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and mammals. In addition to the hand-colored plates, Catesby included detailed descriptions of plants and animals, soils, climate, agriculture, and local Native Americans.

One of the birds Catesby carefully observed and documented was the Passenger Pigeon (shown above), which he described as “about the size of our English Wood-Pigeon; the Bill black; the iris of the Eye red; the Head dusky blue; the breast and belly faint red. Above the shoulder of the Wing is a Patch of feathers that shines like Gold . . . The Tail is very long . . . the Legs and Feet red.”

When Europeans first arrived, there were an estimated three to five billion passenger pigeons in North America. Their migratory flights were spectacular, with observers reporting the sky darkened by huge flocks passing overhead. Catesby wrote that “. . . [they] come in Winter to Virginia and Carolina, from the North, incredible Numbers insomuch that in some places where they roost . . . they often break down the limbs of Oaks with their weight, and leave their Dung some Inches thick under the Trees they roost on . . . In Virginia I have seen them fly in such continued trains three days successively . . .”

By 1880, however, deforestation and uncontrolled commercial hunting (for sport and meat) had reduced the Passenger Pigeon population to several thousand birds, and, by about 1900, the species was extinct in the wild. The last known individual, a female named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914.