Page:DawsonOrnithologicalMiscVol1.djvu/33



The restlessness of man, spurning telluric bounds, for whose aspiring genius his little planet is almost too small (witness the frantic attempts to leave it by balloons and artificial wings, fortunately without success), urges him to improve (?) off the face of the earth many a race of his fellows and numbers of species of subordinate animals. The group of islands called New Zealand, that metropolis of Apteryginity, presents such a scene in our time: English bees and flies, English birds, plants, and, no less, English men, drive into extinction their representatives in New Zealand. "Of the valuable Kauri gum-tree in Auckland very soon there will not be one left" (Trollope's 'Australia and New Zealand'). Many a moan has been raised by the humane and scientific observer over the fact ; and a cry for help, ere help is vain, frequently ascends. As well might one try to stop the ocean's tide. This is