Description

Plate 62. Double Elephant Folio.
When Audubon arrived in America, the passenger pigeon had a population of three to five billion birds. Predation by man and deforestation of their habitat in the nineteenth century was devastating. The last wild pigeon was shot in 1901; the last in captivity died in 1914.
In 1813 Audubon described a flock: “The air was literally filled with Pigeons; the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow, and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose... I cannot describe to you the extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions, when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear of the flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the center. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent... Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh fifty-five miles. The Pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers and continued to do so for three days in succession.”
Audubon’s illustration is the most reproduced image of the extinct species and is known for its attractiveness, but was criticized by twentieth century ornithologists like Wallace Craig and R. W. Shufeldt for an unusual or unnatural pose.