The introduction of this chapter was constructed like the others: a beautiful depiction of nature in the city, a glimpse of it from the past, and a snowball into its destruction. This chapter was particularly harder to read because it was the first to deal with animals, rather than plants. For example, the author includes a recount of the annual pigeon shoot that once took place and details how “hundreds of twitching pigeons [littered] the fields,” (131). This image was startling to me, and was much more offensive than the thought of hundreds of trees being cut down. When I read this passage, I thought of annoying regular pigeons that crowd the city, but when I looked up passenger pigeons I thought they were pretty. Perhaps I only feel this way because I’m not growing up in a time where these passenger pigeons are everywhere like the pigeons in the city today are. I guess our attitudes towards the different species were the same, but at least us New Yorkers have the decency to not kill these birds no matter how much they are a nuisance to our lives. It was particularly sad that what was once (the passenger pigeon, as well as the other species cited such as the heath hen) so abundant eventually became extinct.
Another part that baffled me was how women used to wear entire dead birds on their hats. I thought that this was so silly and almost barbaric, when I realized that people today still practice this, but in the form of fur coats and scarves. I thought this was bad enough, but the author goes on to detail more horrific slaughtering of birds, which disgusted me. I was glad to read the following parts about how people began to act to preserve these birds. This became more optimistic, as the recovery and comeback of different species were depicted. It was also interesting to note how improving the conditions of one aspect of nature, water and its cleanliness, improved the state of another aspect, the birds. This is what distinguishes the story of birds in New York from the past histories we have read; many species have been able to make a comeback, ending the chapter on a much more positive note (aside from the last paragraph). It makes me wonder what factors contributed to the divergence between the storylines of birds and trees. However, this is not to say that the state of wild bird-life is great, per se. The dramatic-yet-true ending of this chapter makes an important point that although many species came close to their demise but didn’t, when species do reach that point, there is no turning back. This is why it’s important for us to not let things get to that point.
