Birds of North America (1881)
This hunting later turned out to be mass slaughter, as settlers would kill passenger pigeons by the millions. Although many states attempted to preserve the passenger pigeon species by putting limitations on the hunting and trapping of those birds, or even implementing 10-year pauses on the hunting of the birds, many of these efforts and laws were not well enforced by each state. In the end, you will notice that when you walk outside, you will not see any passenger pigeons outside on Saint Mary’s Campus. That is because the last living passenger pigeon died in 1914 at the age of 29 in the Cincinnati Zoo. Her name was Martha and there is a statue at the zoo in her honor.
Although The Birds of North America was published in the later 1800s, the information inside about the birds is still relevant to this day. I had never heard of the passenger pigeon until I looked at this rare book. As the passenger pigeon went extinct at the hand of Man’s greed and over-consumption of resources, the species has been left in the past. The Birds of North America is a prime example of how not many things change from the past. One thing that has remained constant from then to now is man’s greed and disregard for the importance of nature.
Another famous bird mentioned in The Birds of North America is the beloved bald eagle, the national bird of the United States of America. Alas, not even this symbolic species of bird was entirely safe from the grasp of man. The bald eagle was also hunted for sport and monetary gain. Some states would put bounties on bald eagles as they were seen as a nuisance to fishing traps. The bald eagle species dwindled rapidly until there were just 490 birds during the1960s. Oftentimes nature is left defenseless to the consequences of human action. Thankfully the Act of 1940, an act passed to protect the endangered species of bald eagles that is only native to North America, put a stop to the slaughter of the symbolic bird. Bald eagles were placed under the protection of the act and put on an endangered species list. Since then their population has slowly increased and is currently not of any concern.
Although the bald eagle is not extinct, it had a close scare, and yet many humans decide to turn a blind eye when it comes to the consequences of our actions, even if they affect the animals and environment around us. The Birds of North America provides numerous examples of how, if we don’t learn from the mistakes we made in the past and stop the greed of man from spreading today, many more species of birds could also go extinct. If changes are not made, many years from now someone may look at The Birds of North America and have a longer list of birds that have gone extinct, never to be seen again outside of the pages of books or in museums. The passenger pigeon should serve as a warning of what can happen when humans overstep in nature. The recovery of the bald eagle should also serve as a warning, but can also give hope that there are still opportunities for change and to make more conscientious and sustainable decisions with how we, as humans, can coexist with nature.