Will do just as soon as I have more coffee, Charlie.
You're both so close, but the answer is ...
the passenger pigeon
This preserved passenger pigeon, held by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is shown Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003, in Knoxville, Tenn.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - In a rare appearance by an even rarer bird, Adriean Mayor carefully lifted a glass case to reveal one of the few remaining specimens of a passenger pigeon.
The stunning 16-inch male, with a bluish gray back, rose-colored breast and bright red eyes, more closely resembles a mourning dove than a pigeon seen waddling down a city street.
Captured near Nashville in 1856, it is the only specimen of the extinct bird left in Tennessee.
As many as 500 preserved pigeons may exist today around the world in various collections, but specimens in good condition after more than a century are uncommon, said collections specialist Chris Milensky at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.
This bird was donated to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1987 by the family of Knoxville ornithologist H.P. Ijams but has never been publicly displayed because of concerns it could be damaged.
"It is really one of the classic examples in North America of animal extinction," said Mayor, the park's curator. "Here is an animal that occurred in the billions when it was alive and it took a very, very small amount of time until it disappeared."
By some estimates there once were 3 billion to 5 billion passenger pigeons in North America — up to 40 percent of all birds on the continent — migrating annually from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico as late as the mid-1800s. Fifty years later, they were all but gone.
"The air was literally filled with pigeons," ornithologist John James Audubon wrote in 1813, gazing into a Kentucky sky. "The light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse ... and with a noise like thunder they rushed into a compact mass."
The pigeons didn't roost in the Smokies on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, but passed through in massive numbers, giving rise to the locally named Pigeon and Little Pigeon rivers and Dolly Parton's hometown of Pigeon Forge.
By the end of the 1800s, the passenger pigeon had been hunted — for its meat, for its feathers and for sport — off the planet.
When a 29-year-old pigeon named Martha — for Martha Washington — died at the Cincinnati Zoo at 1 p.m. on Sept. 1, 1914, it became possibly the only time in history that the exact moment of a species' extinction was recorded.
State Appeals Court Judge Gary Wade, who is president of the Friends of the Smokies support organization, said that seeing the preserved bird for the first time in the Smokies' archives took his breath away.
"I was just so overwhelmed," he said. "Somehow it just sent the message to me that this is really what our efforts are all about — preserving what God has given us."
The Friends group contacted Sevierville artist Robert Tino, an established painter of Smoky Mountains scenes, to create a painting of the pigeon to benefit the Smokies' Tremont Institute — a research and education center for students and scientists from around the country.
There are few, if any, photographs of a live passenger pigeon, and certainly none in color. So Tino went to the source.
"They take you down into the vault and lock you in a room with it. It is pretty cool," Tino said. "Once I saw the bird and started thinking about the painting, I really got interested and researched it on the Web.
"It is really a sad story, but it is a fascinating story just the same," he said.
Tino's painting, depicting the pigeon on a dogwood branch, was recently unveiled at a reception in Knoxville. Limited edition prints sell for $200 with proceeds going to Tremont Institute.
You're both so close, but the answer is ...
the passenger pigeon
This preserved passenger pigeon, held by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is shown Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003, in Knoxville, Tenn.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - In a rare appearance by an even rarer bird, Adriean Mayor carefully lifted a glass case to reveal one of the few remaining specimens of a passenger pigeon.
The stunning 16-inch male, with a bluish gray back, rose-colored breast and bright red eyes, more closely resembles a mourning dove than a pigeon seen waddling down a city street.
Captured near Nashville in 1856, it is the only specimen of the extinct bird left in Tennessee.
As many as 500 preserved pigeons may exist today around the world in various collections, but specimens in good condition after more than a century are uncommon, said collections specialist Chris Milensky at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.
This bird was donated to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1987 by the family of Knoxville ornithologist H.P. Ijams but has never been publicly displayed because of concerns it could be damaged.
"It is really one of the classic examples in North America of animal extinction," said Mayor, the park's curator. "Here is an animal that occurred in the billions when it was alive and it took a very, very small amount of time until it disappeared."
By some estimates there once were 3 billion to 5 billion passenger pigeons in North America — up to 40 percent of all birds on the continent — migrating annually from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico as late as the mid-1800s. Fifty years later, they were all but gone.
"The air was literally filled with pigeons," ornithologist John James Audubon wrote in 1813, gazing into a Kentucky sky. "The light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse ... and with a noise like thunder they rushed into a compact mass."
The pigeons didn't roost in the Smokies on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, but passed through in massive numbers, giving rise to the locally named Pigeon and Little Pigeon rivers and Dolly Parton's hometown of Pigeon Forge.
By the end of the 1800s, the passenger pigeon had been hunted — for its meat, for its feathers and for sport — off the planet.
When a 29-year-old pigeon named Martha — for Martha Washington — died at the Cincinnati Zoo at 1 p.m. on Sept. 1, 1914, it became possibly the only time in history that the exact moment of a species' extinction was recorded.
State Appeals Court Judge Gary Wade, who is president of the Friends of the Smokies support organization, said that seeing the preserved bird for the first time in the Smokies' archives took his breath away.
"I was just so overwhelmed," he said. "Somehow it just sent the message to me that this is really what our efforts are all about — preserving what God has given us."
The Friends group contacted Sevierville artist Robert Tino, an established painter of Smoky Mountains scenes, to create a painting of the pigeon to benefit the Smokies' Tremont Institute — a research and education center for students and scientists from around the country.
There are few, if any, photographs of a live passenger pigeon, and certainly none in color. So Tino went to the source.
"They take you down into the vault and lock you in a room with it. It is pretty cool," Tino said. "Once I saw the bird and started thinking about the painting, I really got interested and researched it on the Web.
"It is really a sad story, but it is a fascinating story just the same," he said.
Tino's painting, depicting the pigeon on a dogwood branch, was recently unveiled at a reception in Knoxville. Limited edition prints sell for $200 with proceeds going to Tremont Institute.
No, Charlie, I have watched a HELL of a lot of movies and I soak up completely useless information very well. Back at OU in the 70's, my trivia team placed 2nd (by one question) and 3rd in successive years - I even know the capital of Outer Mogolia (Ulan Bator). But it depends on the movie - if I didn't like it, I don't retain the info very long or well, but the Odd Couple was a classic. Those sisters giggled and cooed exactly like human pigeons - I can see their faces but of course don't recall their names (meaning, the REAL actresses' names). The little guy at the poker game with the squeaky voice - he was in an old Star Trek episode, where his body was temporarily taken over by the alien who had committed the Jack the Ripper murders. I believe Oscar gave one of the guys a bologna sandwich that had been in the fridge for weeks - the guy didn't care. Yeah, a classic.
Jazz,
The little guy with the sqeaky voice is John Fielder, who also did the voice of Piqlet from Whinnie the Pooh. He also made many other t.v and Movie appearances . Just thought i'd donate some more worthless info for you.
John
BHB
[This message was edited by BetBHB.com on October 06, 2003 at 07:16 PM.]
The little guy with the sqeaky voice is John Fielder, who also did the voice of Piqlet from Whinnie the Pooh. He also made many other t.v and Movie appearances . Just thought i'd donate some more worthless info for you.
John
BHB
[This message was edited by BetBHB.com on October 06, 2003 at 07:16 PM.]
