"The last member of the rarest species known to us. He became blind in one eye, became old for a sparrow, and yet he persisted as if he knew his sole task was to sustain the blood line as long as possible. I wonder if he felt sorrow or excruciating panic at the thought of his oneness. On June 18,1987, a Washington Post headline said, "Goodbye Dusky Seaside Sparrow." Orange Band, blind in one eye, old and alone,was gone. But the day Orange Band died there was a faint sound out there in the universe, hardly noticeable unless you were expecting it and listening. It was a small cry, the last one, that arched upward from a cage in Florida. If you were listening closely though, you could hear it. " I am zero. Extinct." The sound of the word is like the single blow of a hammer on cold steel. And, each day the hammer falls again as another species becomes extinct due to human activity."
