The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) or wild pigeon went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world during the 19th century, to extinction early in the 20th.During migration enormous flocks could be a mile wide by 300 milestaking several hours to pass and sometimes containing more than two billion birds. Some estimate that there were three billion to five billion passenger pigeons in the United States when Europeans arrived in North America.

In 1857, a bill was brought forth to the Ohio State Legislature seeking protection for the passenger pigeon. A Select Committee of the Senate filed a report stating “The passenger pigeon needs no protection. Wonderfully prolific, having the vast forests of the North as its breeding grounds, traveling hundreds of miles in search of food, it is here today and elsewhere tomorrow, and no ordinary destruction can lessen them, or be missed from the myriads that are yearly produced.” 

Fifty-seven years later, on September 1, 1914, Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died in the Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati, Ohio. Her body was frozen into a block of ice and sent to the Smithsonian Institution, where it was skinned and mounted. Currently, Martha (named after Martha Washington) is in the museum’s archived collection, and not on display. A memorial statue of Martha stands on the banks of the Mississippi River, in Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin. Another memorial statue is on the grounds of the Cincinnati Zoo.

Wikipedia: Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)