In the fall of 1813, John James Audubon set out for Louisville, Kentucky, from his home in Henderson to seek opportunities for operating a trade business to support him and his family. The route along the Ohio River from Henderson to Louisville includes crossing the barrens of Kentucky (see Plate 14). Just past Hardensburgh, Audubon observed “the [Passenger] Pigeons flying from north-east to south-west, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I travelled on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled with Pigeons.”
In March of 1830, Audubon and his wife, Lucy, stayed with relatives in New York City awaiting passage to England to continue assisting with the publication of the first edition of Birds of America. Stopovers in cities and towns always meant for John James Audubon time spent in market areas assessing the dead and live birds on display. Most remarkable in New York City at the time was the Passenger Pigeon: “piles of them met the eye in every direction.” Out of the few still living, Audubon bought 350 of them for four cents each to be distributed as gifts “amongst several noblemen, presenting some at the same time to the Zoological Society [of London].” As it was for just about every other bird Audubon placed in a cage (see Plate 7, 86, and 102), the Passenger Pigeon fared poorly. The birds made it as far as the care of the 14th Earl of Derby (1799-1869) where he was able to produce a “great number” of Passenger Pigeons only for them to escape or to be released and almost immediately brought down by hunters.
The last Passenger pigeon on the planet lived at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her name was Martha. She died on September 1, 1914.