旅鸽

字幕原文

In the autumn of 1813, 1813年秋天，

the naturalist John James Audubon was riding through Kentucky when he noticed pigeons flying overhead in enormous numbers. 博物学家约翰·詹姆斯·奥杜邦正骑着马穿过肯塔基州，忽然注意到头顶掠过遮天蔽日的庞大鸽群。

Curious, he got off his horse, sat down on a hill, 出于好奇，他跳下马，在一处小山坡上坐下，

and decided to count the flocks, one pencil dot for each. 打算数数这鸽群，每过一群就用铅笔点一个点。

Within twenty-one minutes he had made a hundred and sixty-three dots, 短短21分钟里，他就点了163个点，

and he gave up. 最后他干脆放弃了。

The birds just kept coming. 鸽群还是源源不断地飞过来。

By midday, the sky was so thick with them that the sun was blotted out, 到了正午，漫天的鸟群密密麻麻，甚至遮住了阳光，

as if by an eclipse. 就像发生了日食一样。

For three whole days, the flocks never stopped passing. 整整三天，过境的鸽群就没断过。

At the time, 在那个年代，

there were probably billions of passenger pigeons in North America, 北美大概生活着几十亿只旅鸽，

more than any other bird on earth. 比地球上任何一种鸟类都要多。

Nobody could imagine running out. 谁也没想过它们居然会有灭绝的一天。

So people shot them by the wagonload, caught them in huge nets, 于是人们成车成车地打，用大网成批成批地抓，

and sold them by the barrel for pennies. 再按桶贱卖，几美分就能买一大桶。

And then, in less than a century, they were gone. 然而，还不到一百年，它们就彻底绝迹了。

The very last one, a bird named Martha, 最后仅存的一只旅鸽名叫玛莎，

died in a zoo in Cincinnati in 1914. 于1914年在辛辛那提的一家动物园里死去了。

Nothing is too plentiful to lose. 没有什么东西是多到永远不会失去的。

In fact, the things we're surest we'll always have are often exactly the ones we forget to protect. 事实上，那些我们最坚信会一直拥有的东西，往往恰恰是我们最容易忘记去保护的。