236 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



on the Chatham Islands, and every one of which 

 has become extinct. Continuing across the Pacific, 

 the same story has to be told ; species after species 

 had gone for ever ; and here especially the 

 trading collector (and we are afraid the scientific 

 one, too) has played, and is continuing to play, sad 

 havoc amongst these island birds — many of them 

 exquisitely beautiful, and profoundly curious. 

 Onwards again to the West Indies, and still the 

 extermination of birds has progressed, in some of 

 the islands whole groups of certain species having 

 disappeared, and others, according to the most 

 recent information, are quickly following ! There 

 is an old proverb that says it is no good crying 

 over spilt milk. Be it so ; but the ornithologist 

 may well be excused a tear when he tries to 

 picture what he has lost ! Nothing can now 

 recall the many curious and beautiful birds that 

 are gone ; but let us profit by the sad experience 

 by endeavouring to save as many as may be of 

 those species still left to us, but threatened with 

 more or less early extermination. A few of these 

 we will now proceed to enumerate. 



