![]() ![]() Depending on the source, Martha was between 17–29 years old at the time of her death, although 29 is the generally accepted figure. Her body was found lifeless on her cage's floor. Several years before her death Martha suffered an apoplectic stroke, leaving her weakened the zoo built a lower roost for her as she could no longer reach her old one. Martha soon became a celebrity due to her status as an endling, and offers of a $1000 reward for finding a mate for Martha brought even more visitors to see her. One of the Cincinnati males died in April 1909, followed by the remaining male on July 10, 1910. Cincinnati Zoo īy November 1907, Martha and her two male companions at the Cincinnati Zoo were the only known surviving passenger pigeons after four captive males in Milwaukee died during the winter. These sources claim that Martha was hatched at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1885, and that the passenger pigeons were originally kept not because of the rarity of the species, but to enable guests to have a closer look at a native species. Another source claimed that when the Cincinnati Zoo opened in 1875, it already had 22 birds in its collection. ![]() However, other sources argue that Martha was instead the descendant of three pairs of passenger pigeons purchased by the Cincinnati Zoo in 1877. These attempts were unsuccessful, and Whitman sent Martha to the Cincinnati Zoo in 1902. Whitman and the Cincinnati Zoo, recognizing the decline of the wild populations, attempted to consistently breed the surviving birds, including attempts at making a rock dove foster passenger pigeon eggs. Whitman kept these pigeons to study their behavior, along with rock doves and Eurasian collared-doves. Martha was named in honor of Martha Washington. Whitman originally acquired his passenger pigeons from David Whittaker of Wisconsin, who sent him six birds, two of which later bred and hatched Martha in about 1885. The generally accepted version is that, by the turn of the 20th century, the last known group of passenger pigeons was kept by Professor Charles Otis Whitman at the University of Chicago. The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon at Allan W.The history of the Cincinnati Zoo's passenger pigeons has been described by Arlie William Schorger in his monograph on the species as "hopelessly confused," and he also said that it is "difficult to find a more garbled history" than that of Martha.The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon. ![]() The Silent Sky contains detailed descriptions of injurings, killing, cruelty, and the loneliness of those few passenger pigeons who remain as the species' number dwindles. The only pigeon given a name is the main character's daughter, who is taken into captivity and named Martha. The rest of the book is about that male's offspring from his hatching to the end of his life some fifteen years later. The first chapter describes the migration of a male passenger pigeon as part of a huge flock. Like The Great Auk, a previous nature novel by the same author, it is about the last individuals of a bird species on the verge of extinction. ![]() It was first published in 1965, by Little, Brown & Company, simultaneously in the U.S.A. The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon is by Allan W. ![]()
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