I wonder about this too. I am not native English and during my questionably successful attempts to learn this language, I realised that it is (they are) two different languages. The written English and the spoken English have some obscure, twisted relatedness, but clearly not the same language. :)
As far as I can recall the spanish flu was four years after the passenger pigeons had went extinct. Those scientist also worked ahead. Either that or you remember incorrectly.
I wonder about this too. I am not native English and during my questionably successful attempts to learn this language, I realised that it is (they are) two different languages. The written English and the spoken English have some obscure, twisted relatedness, but clearly not the same language. :)