CHAPTER XX\'JI1. 



LAST SURVIVOR OF WILD PIGEONS DEAD 



Msu-tha, Captive in Cincinnati Zoo, Survived Loss of 

 Mate Just Four Years — Lived to Be 29 Years Old 



New York, September 13, 1914. 



NEWS of the death in Cincinnati of Martha, the 

 last wild pigeon in the world, according to all 

 ornithological records, was conveyed yesterday to T. 

 Gilbert Pearson, general executive officer of the 

 National Audubon Societies, in a telegram from 

 Eugene Swope, the Ohio agent of the Societies at Cin- 

 cinnati. The death of Martha, according to Mr. 

 Pearson, is a calamity of as great importance in the 

 eyes of naturahsts as the death of a kaiser to Germans 

 throughout the world. 



Martha had been in poor health for several years in 

 her cage at the Zoological Garden in Cincinnati. Many 

 efforts had been made to find a mate for her, or to 

 discover some other specimen of the wild pigeon, but 

 they were without avail. According to all ornitho- 

 logical data available, Martha was the last of her tribe 

 in the world. 



(She died at 2 p. m., August 29, 1914.) 

 Members of the National Audubon Societies some 

 time ago offered a prize of $1,500 to any one who 

 could find a wild pigeon nest. All that was necessary 



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