A Message from Martha: The Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and Its Relevance Today

The Martha of Mark Avery’s title was a bird, perhaps the most famous individual bird in history. She was the last of the Passenger Pigeons, and when she died in 1914 an entire species died with her. Much has been written about her of late, given the centenary of her death. In A Message from Martha, Avery looks at Martha and the Passenger Pigeon as a whole, but his main goal is to look beyond their lives and extinction to the legacy that they left for us, even today. As he explains:

The Passenger Pigeon is a potent symbol of species loss, habitat loss and environmental loss – and the centenary of its extinction should prompt us to consider our past, present and future impact on the very thing that makes this planet special – the diversity of life.

This book is divided into three distinct parts. The first gives an obligatory review of the pigeon’s natural history and causes for extinction. Avery relies heavily on both primary sources, quoting extensively from John James Audubon, Alexander Wilson, and others who had encountered the bird, and previously published compendiums on Passenger Pigeons. Many of the facts and stories here – like accounts of pigeon flocks numbering beyond anything we can imagine today – will be familiar to those already steeped in pigeon lore. But I appreciate that the author doesn’t simply report these things, he analyses them critically. He doesn’t, for example, take the estimates given by those who viewed the great hordes on faith, but does his own calculations to try to determine how many pigeons there actually were at that time and if that great number could realistically be supported by their environment. He also questions the given breeding biology that states that these pigeons laid only one egg at a time and raised only a single brood per year. This, he maintains, would not have been sufficient to maintain their population. It is, in fact, likely that they only laid a single egg per nest. But he uses other aspects of their behavior to argue that they attempted a second nesting in a location far removed from the first.

The second part sees Avery, who is British, travel to America to see the former haunts of the Passenger Pigeon for himself. He makes pilgrimages to sites important in the life of the bird, such as the Wisconsin Dells, where there was a massive nesting colony in 1871 (how massive? It was estimated at 136-176 million birds!). Of course, he also visits where the bird died – the location where the last known Passenger Pigeon was shot in the wild and the Cincinnati Zoo, where Martha lived and died – just as Christopher Cokinos did in his lyrical book on extinct birds, Hope Is the Thing With Feathers.

This section reads more like a travelogue, with Avery recording interactions with people, such as waitresses and park rangers, in addition to his reactions to seeing the places formerly inhabited by the now-extinct bird. There are some insights to be gleaned here, though mostly for those unfamiliar with these locations specifically and, especially, America as a whole.

Learning about the pigeon and where it lived are fully worthwhile, but Avery wants to look beyond this to see if there are lessons in what happened to the Passenger Pigeon that can be applied today. In order to do that, he first seeks to put the pigeon’s loss in context with what was happening in America as a whole during its period of abundance, decline, and eventual extinction. He summarizes US history from 1838 (a somewhat arbitrary date chosen for reasons I won’t get into here) to 1914 (the year of Martha’s death) through a 33-page timeline. It highlights the important events that happened each year, such as the Civil War, but it also includes ecological events missing in most history books. I appreciate what Avery is doing here, showing the Progress of our nation as “a story of steady social and economic progress but at the expense of some ecological loss.” But I couldn’t help but feel like it was filler to pad the length of the book; the same message could have been communicated much more efficiently.

A Message from Martha ends with the author back at home in England, where he draws comparisons between the Passenger Pigeon and what is happening with the Turtle Dove today. In a diary-style format, he tells about the drastic decline of the dove in England and what is being done to save it. Unfortunately, that seems to be too little. I found this section interesting, but I can see how some would think it a bit tedious. But his concluding point is vitally important. He points out that “we are in a different position from those who witnessed the disappearance of the Passenger Pigeon…We know our wildlife is disappearing.” And, for the most part, we know what the solutions are. In the Turtle Dove’s case, it is a change in British farming practices to more sustainable techniques. While written specifically about British farming, one could easily substitute any number of other issues from around the world.

Ultimately, that is the message that Avery supposes Martha would give to us today. We are not ignorant of our impact, like those who wiped out the Passenger Pigeon. On the contrary, we have “the knowledge and ability to live sustainably on this planet”. But will we care enough to do so?

Recommendation

A Message from Martha: The Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and Its Relevance Today is an impassioned plea to learn from what was done to the Passenger Pigeon so that we don’t make the same mistakes again. As a book, I was slightly disappointed in it. It felt like a great concept that was drawn out a little too much. But it is informative, especially to those not already familiar with the tale of the Passenger Pigeon. And, more importantly, it is a crucial message; one that I hope finds a widespread audience.