A FEATHER OF THE EXTINCT PASSENGER PIGEON (ECTOPISTES MIGRATORIUS)

A FEATHER OF THE EXTINCT PASSENGER PIGEON (ECTOPISTES MIGRATORIUS)of Natural History interest, North America, extinct since 1/9/1914, in cardboard display box, together with a certificate of authenticity recently prepared by Errol Fuller with a photograph of the feather on the reverse,the feather 4.1cm in lengthThis species was once the most abundant bird in North America, numbering around 3-5 billion individuals. Flocks would darken the sky and one flock took 14 hours to pass overhead. Hunting of this species for food intensified after the arrival of Europeans, particularly in the 19th century, and this coupled with habitat destruction led to the species decline and final extinction. The last confirmed wild bird is thought to have been shot in 1901 and Martha, the last captive bird, died in September 1914 at Cincinnati Zoo.Errol Fuller is the author of the following:Extinct Birds, Oxford University Press, 2000The Great Auk, Abrams, New York, 1999,Dodo, Harper Collins, 2002,The Passenger Pigeon, Princeton University Press, 2014,Lost Animals, Princeton University Press, 2013.