(I) On 1 September 1914, at the age of 29 years, Martha
died. (II) Her departure marked not only the end of her
life, but the final demise of her entire kind – Martha was
the last of the passenger pigeons. (III) A hundred years
earlier, the extinction of this species seemed impossible,
as the passenger pigeon was one of the most abundant
birds ever to have existed. (IV) It is estimated that there
were between three and five billion passenger pigeons
at the time of European settlement of North America.
(V) Because passenger pigeons flocked in such huge
numbers, they needed large blocks of forest for
successful breeding.