Passenger pigeons once flew over much of the United States in unbelievable numbers. Written accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries described flocks so large that they darkened the sky for hours.
旅鸽曾以难以置信的数量飞过美国大部分地区。18、19世纪有书面记录描述了旅鸽群规模巨大以至于遮天蔽日数个小时。
It was calculated that when its population reached its highest point, there were more than 3 billion passenger pigeons - a number equal to 24 to 40 percent of the total bird population in the United States, making it perhaps the most abundant bird in the world. Even as late as 1870 when their numbers had already become smaller, a flock believed to be a mile wide and 320 miles (about 515 kilometers) long was seen near Cincinnati.
据计算，当旅鸽数量达到最高点时，数量高达30多亿只——相当于美国鸟类总数量的24%至40%，这可能是世界上数量最多的鸟类。即使在1870年旅鸽数量已经变少的时候，在辛辛那提附近也可以看见1英里宽，320英里（约515公里）长的旅鸽群。
Sadly, the abundance of passenger pigeons may have been their undoing. Where the birds were most abundant, people believed there was an ever-lasting supply and killed them by the thousands. Commercial hunters attracted them to small clearings with grain, waited until pigeons had settled to feed, then threw large nets over them, staking hundreds at a time. The birds were shipped to large cities and sold in restaurants.
可惜大量的旅鸽面临的可能是它们的毁灭。在旅鸽最丰富的地方，人们相信供应是持久的，将它们成千成千地杀死。商业猎人用谷物将它们吸引到小空地，等待旅鸽下来进食，然后在它们身上撒下大网。这些旅鸽被运至大城市，在餐馆里出售。
By the closing decades of the 19th century, the hardwood forests where passenger pigeons nested had been damaged by Americans'need for wood, which scattered the flocks and forced the birds to go farther north, where cold temperatures and spring storms contributed to their decline. Soon the great flocks were gone, never to be seen again.
到19世纪末的几十年里，旅鸽筑巢的硬木森林已经因美国人对木材的需求所破坏，这导致了鸽群分散，迫使鸽群向北迁徙，寒冷的气温和春天的风暴导致了它们的数量减少。很快，大量鸽群消失，再无影踪。
In 1897, the state of Michigan passed a law prohibiting the killing of passenger pigeons, but by then，no sizable flocks had been seen in the state for 10 years．The last confirmed wild pigeon in the United States was shot by a boy in Pike County, Ohio, in 1900. For a time，a few birds survived under human care．The last of them，known affectionately as Martha，died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden on September 1, 1914.
1897年，密歇根州通过了一项法律，禁止捕杀旅鸽，但此时，该州已经有10年没有看见过大规模的鸽群了。1900年，美国最后一只被确认的野鸽被俄亥俄州派克县的一个男孩射杀。有几只旅鸽在人类的照料下幸存了一段时间。最后一只，被亲热地称为玛莎，于1914年9月1日在辛辛那提动物园去世。
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