passenger pigeon

Extinct North American bird, genus Ectopistes migratoria, whose sudden and complete disappearance is one of the most remarkable in zoological history. It was probably the most gregarious bird in existence, and migrating flocks filled the sky for days. The birds were slaughtered for food, and in one year 15,000,000 dead birds were dispatched from Michigan and Pennsylvania. In 1888 it failed to take up its usual breeding quarters, and then disappeared without trace, the last known specimen dying at Cincinnati Zoological Gardens 1914. Its main features were its long wings and longer narrow tail.