“ Alexander Wilson was even capable of activism on behalf of birds. When in 1807 good sense would not prevail with merchants who were killing thousands of robins to satisfy the genteel palates of Philadelphia, he wrote an anonymous article to city newspapers explaining that robin flesh was unhealthy because of the birds’ heavy diet of pokeberries; though Wilson knew the claim to be entirely false, it effectively curtailed the slaughter of robins for the Philadelphia market. ”
Robins: almost another passenger pigeon? This is Michael Branch in the article, “Indexing American Possibilities”
