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This is one of the saddest stories in the history of American Wildlife. This print which I had accomplished of the now extinct passenger pigeon, Martha. I painted it from a very old mount at the San Bernardino County Museam. The passenger pigeon was the most abundant bird in the world, numbering, not in the millions, but in the billions. Some flocks would darken the sky for days as they passed over head for their feeding and nesting areas. Each flock would hold over one billion birds,  as stated by James Audubon. They would break tree limbs when so many would land, estimated to be around 3 to 5 billion birds before the greed of the white man discovered how much money could be gained from them. On one special day, 1,800,000 were killed then shipped back east for many reasons. The last passenger pigeon, Martha, past away all alone, surrounded by crying naturalists in the Cincinnate Zoo on September 1, 1914. But in just a little over 50 years, they were all gone. Their nesting areas completely filled with nesting passenger pigeons measured 15 to 20 square miles, and their droppings covering the ground like snow 3 to 4 feet in depth, which the farmers gathered for their fields. Thus, I dedicate this print, which can be ordered, to all those other animals and birds who managed to survive extinction. I also plan to paint other pictures of the passenger pigeon scenes in the future.

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