The Passenger Pigeon

“There would be days and days when the air was alive with them, hardly a break occurring in a flock for half a day at a time. Flocks stretched as far as a person could see, one tier above another. I think it would be safe to say that millions could have been seen at the same time.” (The Passenger Pigeon, Chapter XI: Recollections of "Old Timers" pg 123)

So it is recounted in Mershon’s The Passenger Pigeon -- a compendium documenting both the natural history of the passenger pigeon and its eventual extinction. As many as 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons once called the U.S. home. By the time Mershon produced this publication in 1907, a few passenger pigeons still survived in captivity, but it was suspected that the species was extinct in the wild. Publications such as this roused public interest in the need for strong conservation laws and have subsequently contributed to conservation of other species.

This copy of The Passenger Pigeon is signed by the author.