The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of The Passenger Pigeon

First edition. Ex-Library copy with typical library marks and stamps. Unclipped dust jacket in very good condition. 

In 1813, John James Audubon recorded the passage of a flock of passenger pigeons migrating south which he conservatively estimated to exceed one billion individual birds. This was only one of many such flocks which filled the American skies. It was estimated that nearly forty per cent of the total bird population of the United States was passenger pigeons.

Yet, 101 years later, the last passenger pigeon in the world died at the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. That such an enormous population of any living creature could have been wiped out in such a short time is beyond belief, yet it is true. This is the accurate and incredible account of how it happened.

With accuracy, suspense, and unusual sensitivity, the author re-creates the last perilous years of the passenger pigeon, following in detail the lives of several individuals until the last bird dies.