Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/751

Rh EXTIKPATED FOKMd.] BIRDS Solitaire of Leguat, a Huguenot exile who, passing some time in 1691-93 on that island, has left, with a very in ferior figure, a charmingly naive account of its appearance and habits, the general truth of which has been amply substantiated by Mr Edward Newton s discovery in large numbers of its bones (Phil. Trans. 1869, p. 327) ; and a nearly complete skeleton of either sex may be seen in the museum of the University of Cambridge, by the side of the most perfect specimen existing of that of its bulkier relative, the Mauritian Dodo. Nor does this group of Didine birds contain all the lost forms of the Mascarene islands. From Mauritius have a somewhat abnormal Starling (Fregitupus) existed until some forty years ago (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 474), and its skin and skeleton are among the treasures of three or four museums. Perhaps, also, there were other Ralline birds, but the evidence on this head is inconclusive. In Eodriguez, the greater part of its original avifauna has vanished. There was a small but peculiar Owl (Athene murivora), a big Parrot (Necropsittacus rodericanus), a Dovo (Erythrcena ? sp. ign.), a large brevipennate Heron (Ardea megacephala and a singular Rail (Miserythru* leyuati) in some respects allied to the Mauritian Aphanapteryx besides other birds of which we know from old voyagers, 1 though their remains have not yefc been determined (as those of the species above mentioned have been) from the numerous caverns of the island. A second Parrot, or rather Parrakeet (Palceornis exsul}, still exists, A, Mandible of Apftanapteryx, side view. From the original in the Museum of Zoology of the University of Cambridge, but in very small numbers, and the unique specimen known was obtained in the year 1871. With the examples of these Causes c Mascarene Islands before us, it extirpa- is not without reason that we tloIL suppose a like fate to have be fallen many of the feathered inhabitants of other places ex posed to similar ravages. We cannot read the accounts not merely of the earliest voyages to the Antilles, but even of those performed within the last hundred years, without being aware that the writers met with many Birds which are not now- known to inhabit them. These lost species, there is some ground for believing, were mainly, if not wholly, peculiar to the locality, and after having made good their existence, maybe, for ages, fell easy and helpless victims to the forces which European civilization brought into play. Chief among these forces was fire. In all coun tries and at all times it has been the habit of colonists to burn the woods surrounding their settlements partly to clear the ground for future crops, and partly (in tropical climates especially) to promote the salubrity of their stations. When fire was set to the forest and bush of a small island, the whole of which could be burnt at once, the disappeared at least two species of Parrot, a Dove, a large j disastrous effect on its fauna can easily be conceived. Even the animals which happened to escape the conflagration itself would speedily starve, owing to the at least tem porary destruction of the native flora whence, either directly or indirectly, they derived their wonted sustenance. Thus in certain of the Virgin Islands the &quot; dead &quot; shells of many B, Left Tibi.i of Aphanapttryr, hind and inside views. From the original at Cambridge. FIG. 45. These figures reproduced from The Hit, 1869, by permission of the Editor. C, Right Tarso-metatarsus of Aphanapteryr, front and inside views. From the original at Cambridge. Natural size. Coot, and a second Ralline bird, abnormal, flightless, and long-billed Aphanapteryx. A painting of this last was found by Von Frauenfeld in the emperor s library at Vienna, and some of its bones, rescued by Mr Edward Newton from the peat of the Mare aux Songes, have been fully described by M. A. Milne-Edwards. Remains of the. species of terrestrial Gasteropods are everywhere found in Coot and one of the extinct Parrots were found also in the ! astounding numbers, while not a living individual of several same spot, while skins of the other Parrot and of the Dove of the species has ever been met with by the conchologists still exist in a few museums. Reunion, also, once had other birds now lost, and so had Rodriguez. In the former, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, pp. 39-42.