From billions to extinction
A ‘rare bird’ comes to auction
Carefully perched amongst the late Don Blyth’s treasures to be offered in Miller & Miller’s October sale of Firearms, Sporting & Canadiana is a rare male passenger pigeon mount. Casting its sharp gaze across the auction gallery, the taxidermied pigeon appears alive and unscathed, despite the mass extinction of its species more than one hundred years ago.
Passenger pigeons were once considered to be the most abundant bird on the planet. Population estimates from the nineteenth century ranged from one billion to close to four billion, comprising up to forty percent of the total number of birds in North America. They travelled in large numbers throughout the eastern and midwestern United States and Canada, with flocks reaching up to a mile in width and three hundred miles in length. These gargantuan flocks created a density that was said to darken the sky for hours as the birds passed overhead. One account from Columbus, Ohio, in 1855 described a “growing cloud” that blotted out the sun as it advanced toward the city. “Children screamed and ran for home,” it said. “Horses bolted. A few people mumbled frightened words about the approach of the millennium, and several dropped on their knees and prayed.” After the feathered storm had passed, the landscape was left whitened by a colossal blanket of pigeon droppings.
The artwork titled ‘Shooting Wild Pigeons in Northern Louisiana’ is based on a sketch by Smith Bennett and appeared in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of July 3, 1875.
Passenger pigeon flocks would travel far and wide in search of acorns, beechnuts and other tree mast. They would take over woodlands in miles-long blockades, creating roosting sites so dense that trees would snap beneath their weight, and the grounds would suffer from the volume and toxicity of their excrement. To protect their flocks, the pigeons used a method known as ‘predator satiation’ to ward off enemies; this involved using strength in numbers to overwhelm predators, ensuring that even with a few casualties, there was no way for a predator to make a dent in their population.
Principal nesting sites were in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England, but the bird’s normal distribution was much wider.
There was one enemy, however, that the passenger pigeons were not prepared for. By the mid 1800s, humans had discovered that these pigeons provided a tasty meal and easy target practice, prompting hunters to track down the nesting sites and conduct mass killings. While many were killed for food, an alarming number were killed for sport and left to rot. Deforestation was also a major threat to the birds as the agricultural revolution of the mid 1800s created increased demand for vacant farmlands. The pigeons’ ‘strength in numbers’ soon became their greatest weakness as entire colonies were demolished in the blink of an eye.
Newspaper spread showing methods of capturing passenger pigeons for shooting contests.
It is not entirely known what caused the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon. By the late 1800s, ornithologists were reporting tremendous declines in pigeon numbers, despite efforts to initiate hunting restrictions. It was simply too late. The last passenger pigeon nesting sites were reported in the Great Lakes region in the 1890s. The last reported passenger pigeon in the wild was shot in Pike County, Ohio on March 24, 1900. A few lingering birds, however, remained in captivity. The very last passenger pigeon, named Martha, lived at the Cincinnati Zoo where zoo officials offered a $1000 reward to locate a male mate. The effort failed, and Martha died alone at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914.
Four years after the passenger pigeon was declared extinct, The Migratory Bird Treaty Act was enacted to deem it unlawful to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill or sell nearly 1,100 species of birds in North America. Due to the timing of its extinction, the passenger pigeon was not included on this list, therefore releasing collectors from any legalities of purchasing one.
The passenger pigeon offered in Miller & Miller’s upcoming sale was discovered by the late Don Blyth in an unsuspecting place. After years of searching, he spotted the bird among other taxidermy in a Victorian diorama at an Ontario antique show. Don offered to pay the seller full price ‘for just one bird’. The seller agreed, not realizing just how rare that ‘one bird’ was compared to the rest. However, there was a problem. The pigeon was secured so tightly with piano wire that pliers were required to safely remove it. In his search for the tool, Don could have lost his pigeon. Luckily when he finally returned with the pliers to free his rarity, it remained in place and unidentified. Don’s long-awaited Passenger Pigeon was going home.
Miller & Miller’s October 9th sale presents a unique opportunity for collectors to own this tangible piece of North American history, and to carry on the tales of a fascinating species that once blackened our skies and whitened our lands.
Story by Tess M.
Take a closer look at the Taxidermy Passenger Pigeon offered as lot 95 in the upcoming sale:
Sale Details:
Firearms, Sporting & Canadiana
October 9, 2021 | 9am
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