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Around the turn of the 20th century A.T. Wayne was one of the most active hunters/dealers of bird specimens in America and his prized item-for-sale was the Ivory-billed Woodpecker at a whopping $22 (compared to $3.50 for a Carolina Paroquet and $2.50 for Bachman's Warbler!). And among his chief customers was William Brewster who eventually ended up with 61 Ivory-bills in his collection.
Thankfully, times do change... just not always soon enough.
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1 comment:
I understand that habitat destruction did a lot to cause these birds to either go extinct or to become rare. However, a live bird can fly away from habitat change, a dead one cannot. A.T. Wayne, although held in high regard by most South Carolina ornithologists, did probably more damage than any one other individual to the populations of the Ivory-bill and the Bachman's Warbler. What other collector wiped out an entire Ivory-bill population on an entire river system? And Brewster not only collected himself, he paid others to collect as well. I can't really think that these folks did a lot to forward the ornithological cause.
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