As most everyone knows, the Passenger Pigeon is extinct. So is my great (x 8) grandfather Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts but I recently found a link between those two old birds and as an aficionado of both family history and birds I couldn’t be happier about it.
Thomas Dudley was my direct paternal ancestor. He was second in command of the Winthrop Fleet, 11 ships and about 700 Puritans who came to the New World to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. He was a man of many accomplishments and traits, not all of them admirable. A partial list:
- chief founder (along with Simon Bradstreet) of Cambridge, Massachusetts (called Newtowne) and built the town’s first home
- four times governor and deputy-governor many times
- instrumental in the formation of Harvard College and as governor signed its charter in 1650
- a devout and inflexible Puritan who was a “thrifty man who was somewhat prone to usury”. He “often won approval but never affection”.
- had 8 children, including Anne (Dudley) Bradstreet – North America’s first published poet, Joseph Dudley – Royal Governor of Massachusetts (born when the old man was 70 years old) and Reverend Samuel Dudley from whom I am descended
The first winter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was horrific and 200 of the Puritans died from disease and starvation. In March of the following spring (1631) Thomas Dudley wrote a letter to his friend Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln back in England in which he detailed the trials and tribulations of the colony up to that point.
That letter is a long one and I had read many parts of it previously but recently I perused it once again and something jumped out at me – the letter included a paragraph near the end that described an experience of the colonists with a great flock of Passenger Pigeons! This must be among the first written accounts of European settlers about this now extinct bird. I include that paragraph below (redacted by the Winthrop Society for explanation, in parentheses, and to make it easier to read).
“Upon the 8th of March, from after it was fair day light until about 8 of the clock in the forenoon, there flew over all the towns in our plantations so many flocks of doves (passenger pigeons, a species now extinct), each flock containing many thousands, and some so many that they obscured the light, that passeth credit, if but the truth should be written. And the thing was the more strange, because I scarce remember to have seen ten doves since I came into this country. They were all turtle doves, as appeared by diverse of them we killed flying, somewhat bigger than those of Europe, and they flew from the north east to the south west; but what it portends I know not.”
I was thrilled to stumble upon this 382 year old connection between my ancestor and the Passenger Pigeon!
Live Passenger Pigeon in 1896 kept by C.O. Whitman (image in the public domain)
For those who may be unfamiliar with the tragic history of the Passenger Pigeon, here’s a few “gee whiz” facts and figures about the species:
- at one time it may have been the most numerous bird species on the planet with estimates of numbers as high as 5 billion individuals
- the historic population of this species is roughly equivalent to the total number of birds (of all species) that overwinter every year in the U.S.
- in 1866 one southern Ontario flock was described as being 300 miles long, 1 mile wide and took 14 hours to pass
- communal nesting areas (known as “cities) were huge – one in central Wisconsin in 1871 covered 850 square miles and included an estimated 136 million nesting birds
- early colonists believed large flocks of pigeons brought ill fortune – perhaps an explanation for the last line in Dudley’s account of the bird
- commercial hunting took a huge toll on the Passenger Pigeon with a variety of methods used. One type of net could capture up to 3500 birds at a time
- at a Petoskey, Michigan nesting site in 1878, 50,000 birds were killed every day for 5 months
The two primary causes of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon were commercial hunting and habitat loss. The species absolutely required huge numbers to breed communally and when those numbers were sufficiently reduced they simply stopped breeding.
The last reliable record of a wild bird was in Pike County, Ohio in March of 1900 when the bird was killed by a boy with a BB gun, though there were undocumented reports of a few more birds for several years after that. Attempts were made to breed some of the remaining birds in captivity but they failed, largely because of the lack of a communal breeding opportunity
“Martha” – the last Passenger Pigeon (image in the public domain)
Martha, the last known Passenger Pigeon, died on September 1, 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo. She was sent to the Smithsonian Institution after her body was frozen into a block of ice where she was “skinned, dissected, photographed and mounted”. Today she sits in the museum’s archived collection and is not on display. There’s a memorial statue of her on the grounds of the Cincinnati Zoo.
You’d think we’d have learned some lessons from this tragic example but at the rate of extinction today I fear we haven’t learned nearly enough of them. If a species as numerous as the Passenger Pigeon can be wiped out so easily in such a short period of time it surely doesn’t bode well for thousands of others already on the brink.
Grieve, for them and for us.
Ron
Note: I’ve taken much of the information presented here about the Passenger Pigeon from Wikipedia. If you have the interest (and the stomach for it) I suggest you at least read the “hunting” portion of the article. Man can be truly ingenious in dreaming up ways to kill.
I apologize for including so much of my family history here. That portion of this post is likely to be of interest to only a select few but to them (us) it’s important.
This is my first time commenting. I’ve been following your blog for a while. Your photographs are gorgeous and I love learning about all the different species, but this post really struck me. Many have spoken here my exact sentiments regarding learning to live with all creatures. Just look at the declining state of honey bees today. They have also just reopened wolf hunting in the Midwest this year because we have taken their land and then call them a nuisance/killers for invading “our territory”. So much could be learned from the traditional Native cultures that lived and coexisted with the earth and all its inhabitants. I pray society wakes up before its too late for our future generations. Thank you for including your fascinating ancestry. Another one of my favorite subjects. May you continue to bless us with your gifts of birding and photography. I’d also like to thank the others that comment on your posts. I learn just as much from them. Bird people are just the best!!!
I recently read of Chairman Mao’s edict to eradicate sparrows in the late 50’s. Long story short: China’s ruling party, having recently socialized the country’s agriculture, decided that eliminating sparrows (Eurasian Tree Sparrow) would result in appreciably more grain for the people. Within two years The Great Sparrow Campaign resulted in the killing of hundreds of millions of sparrows, bringing them to the verge of extinction. However, no thought had been given to the massive amount of insects consumed by the “pests”. The population of locusts and other insects immediately exploded and crop yields crashed, helped along by the misuse of pesticides and poor weather. By 1961 an estimated 30-50 million people had died in the Great Chinese Famine.
It’s a different story than that of the passenger pigeon, but similar by virtue of the inconceivably large numbers of birds removed from an ecosystem in the blink of an eye. Hard to grasp.
Wow, I hadn’t heard of that sparrow fiasco, Mike – though I head read of the famine. And yes, it is hard to grasp that so many birds could be wiped out so quickly. An interesting event, thanks for sharing it.
An interesting, and sad story, but I guess we shouldn’t judge our ancestors too harshly considering the more physical struggles of their everyday lives, and a very different view of nature and the purpose of wildlife. I guess you could say that communal nesting was a negative trait in survival in this case.
“I guess you could say that communal nesting was a negative trait in survival in this case.”
Sonja, I guess it was a negative with humans included in the equation but before that it must have been a positive or it wouldn’t have been selected for in the first place.
An interesting connection! I love family history. I don’t know that much of mine… Even if we can determine our genetic makeup, we might not know about the people who gave us those genes, their personalities, likes and dislikes… Which is why large scale mass exterminations that we have seen in the last 100 years (and all throughout our history) cause so much anguish. I remember learning about the passenger pigeon as a child – one of the first and strongest memories I’ve had. Dismay and sadness (I didn’t know outrage at that age) that we could kill so many things all at once. I had the same feeling about the Ivory Billed woodpecker, when learning about it in the mid-2000’s, when someone claimed to have seen or heard it, prompting the Cornell Ornithology lab to send people out. There is (still??) a reward of $50,000 put forward by the Nature Conservancy to “the person who can lead a project biologist to a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker”. Killing for the sake of killing or for the sake of denying someone else something (food) is a distasteful concept, one of many that we humans have come up with. It’s hard not to feel despair sometimes, at the rotten things that humans do.
“It’s hard not to feel despair sometimes, at the rotten things that humans do.”
So true on so many levels, Nicole. There’s a lot of good folks out there doing their best to compensate but it so often seems like a losing battle. Discouraging as it can be, we can’t give up.
Ron, Joel Greenberg is releasing his book on the passenger pigeon in 2014 on the 100th anniversary of Martha’s death.
Thanks for the heads up, Karen. I’m quite sure that book will be on my bookshelf soon after publication.
I am fascinated by family history – at least in part because so much of mine is concealed and inaccessible. And chuckled at ‘won approval but never affection’. It probably suited him just fine.
And saddened by the passenger pigeon – and by the fact that it and the dodo are probably the only things we have hunted to extinction which can be ‘named’ by the layman.
I chuckled at that too, Elephant’s Child. From that and other things I’ve read about him I’d say he was highly respected but not much loved, though his daughter Anne Bradstreet (the poet) certainly loved him. I’m reading a book about Anne now.
Ron, your family history is fascinating. How neat that you can trace your history back to the early beginnings of this country. The story about the pigeons is tragic, that someone would do this to innocent pigeons who had the same right to be here as we. Someday hopefully we will learn and I just hope it is before it is too late. We are all here for a reason. One thing that concerns me is that some in government are talking about selling off state and government parks to pay down the debt. The thing I fear is that they will destroy these lands for shopping centers and homes.
I cringe every time someone in my neighborhood chops down a tree. They are taking away the birds home and protection.I have hundreds of birds that visit me each day and I do worry a lot about them.
Thank you.
Debbie, I have lots of interesting characters in my family history – including my great grandfather who was charged with murder in 1879 for killing the guy who was messing around with his wife. After a 5 day trial he was found not guilty by reason of self defense but ended up moving to southern Alberta to get away from the aftermath of the incident. That’s how my family ended up in Canada and northern Montana where I was raised.
I’ve been following this crazy idea some have of selling off our National Parks and other public lands. Absolutely nuts!
Hi Ron,
I remember reading an article several years ago that postulated a link between the Passenger Pigeon’s extinction and Lyme disease(!). The reasoning went like this: Lyme disease increases 1-2 years after a bumper crop of acorns. That huge crop creates a concentration of white-tailed deer, and therefore a breeding ground for ticks. The acorn crop also increases the population of white-footed mice, known Lyme disease carriers. The ticks reproduce on the deer, and also become Lyme disease carriers after sucking the mice’s blood. Passenger pigeons travelled the forests of the eastern US looking for those large acorn crops.The theory says that the huge acorn consumption by passenger pigeons prevented local concentrations of deer & mice (and therefore disease-bearing ticks) from forming. Once the pigeons were gone, that control was no longer in place, and Lyme disease rates increased. Interesting…
Cheers,
Dick
Wow, that’s a new and very interesting theory to me, Dick. Who knows, we’ve thrown the complicated balances off in so many ways it may very well be what’s happened regarding Lyme Disease.
Great post, Ron! The family history link is fascinating. Information about the Passenger Pigeon is (or should be) sobering. As has been said in the past, we haven’t learned history’s lessons and continue to repeat them. We simply MUST find a better way to convey such lessons to our children so they’ll have a legacy for their children.
Thanks, Wally I’m glad the family history didn’t bore you. And I agree about the legacy for our children – my interest in family history has given me a heightened appreciation for such things.
History enriches us. How wonderful when it teaches us. Grief over irretrievable losses, the greatest teacher of us all, when we have the heart to learn.
“Grief over irretrievable losses, the greatest teacher of us all, when we have the heart to learn.”
Love that sentiment, Alison.
Absolutely fascinating! I had no idea! Thanks for enlightening me! It’s a lesson that we all need to learn and not repeat out mistakes of the past. Your avian love must be genetic! What wonderful family history!
Charlotte
“Your avian love must be genetic”
I wondered about a genetic link there too, Charlotte – though I’m not sure Thomas had any particular affinity for birds except for those that might end up on his dinner plate. But at least he had enough interest to mention them in his letter.
Ron,
Great post! Learning from our ancestry and linking to our wildlife is great to read!
What a great history you have. On the other hand, how sad a history for the Passenger Pidgeon. Seems as though man will never know that we need to live together with all species. Man continually tries to wipe out other species whether homosapian or animal. So sad. Here huge flocks of crows congregate on the roof of the large area shopping mall. So every night they set off canons to scare them away so they don’t deficate on shoppers cars and shoppers themselves.
We certainly need to learn to coexist with other critters much better than we do, Ellen. I hadn’t heard about store owners using canons to scare away birds. Geez…
lol…yes the lovely “bird cannon”…..we have to many of those around here. They are propane driven and are not expensive. Personaly I have about 7 fruit trees just for the wilds around here. I call the area the “bird feeder”. 🙂
Tim
I love that you do that, Tim.
I find all of this so interesting. Firstly, all I knew about the Passenger Pigeon was a vague idea that it was now extinct, but why or how, I had no idea. Mankind is truly a foolish creature. So tragic. But I also find your family history info fascinating … please don’t apologize for including that!!!
Thanks for the positive feedback, Lois – about family history but especially how you learned from this post. I like that…
The Passenger Pigeon has always been the corner stone of man’s effect on an animals and extiction. In 1914 people saw for the first time articles about the COST of extinction and its effects on man. The fate of the Passenger Pigeon is often given credit for saving the Bison and other birds on the edge of extinction. The current studies in De-Extinction always start with the Passenger Pigeon and the question of “what animals should we bring back?”. George Church(genomic engineer) has a book called “Regenesis” which is his studies of science reinventing man and nature(I guess some have a problem incuding us in nature..lol)….he and another, Beth Shapiro(evolutionary molecular biologist), are working hard to bring back species and/or strengthen endangered species with a deal they call “Revive and Restore: genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species”. It’s all incredibly interesting and I recommend looking into it. I seriously feel that not all of mankind is destructive and uncaring….including us darn falconers. Oh….and congratulations Ron on your family history! 🙂
Tim
Tim, I’ve read some things about “de-extinction” but for some reason I hadn’t thought to include the Passenger Pigeon as a possible candidate. I always used to tell my students that “extinction is forever” but perhaps that’s not necessarily so…
The Passenger Pigeon is the first canidate of their studies. Put this into your search engine and you’ll find a lot of great reading….
“Beth Shapiro passenger pigeon” …..or, “George Church passenger pigeon”
Tim
This is so interesting, and I remember learning about Martha when I was very young. The whole story has stuck with me over the years, and is one of the reasons that I am so strong an advocate for the education of our children about the environment. You are one of the educators who was/is doing the near impossible task of engaging students in nature. I think the world of teachers, especially science teachers, and I thank you again for this work you do and the wonderful stories you tell.
Thanks so much, Tana. Your words mean a lot!
What a beautiful, graceful looking bird…what terrible, terrible tragedy! And we’re not through with our destructive course yet. How I wish Dick Harlow didn’t speak for me, but he does.
Yes, they are beautiful and graceful looking, Patty. I was especially struck by that very long tail.
I agree it is heartbreaking, BUT man reaps what he sows! The older I get the more I begin to think like my grandfather, negative thoughts about where we as a race are headed. We all can do our part to support the Audubon Society and the many good private and state environmental organizations that are trying to save land. However, as populations around the world grow, countries become more successful and people in general live longer more and more land will be taken for agriculture, business and housing. Where will the wildlife go? When will we figure out that our well being is dependent on their survival? Sad commentary for future generations!
“When will we figure out that our well being is dependent on their survival?”
That’s the key, isn’t it Dick? I’m afraid that I’m as much of a pessimist on this subject as you are but we have no choice but to keep trying.
Heartbreaking.
Yes, it is, Sharon.