GIANT ROAD-MAKERS 109 



by disuse, is a question wliich liiis long been de- 

 bated, and which is still undecided. It must be re- 

 membered, however, that all birds unable to fly are 

 not classed with the giant birds; nor are all flying 

 birds excluded. 



We have, for example, a huge pigeon, the dodo, 

 now extinct, on the Island of Mauritius, which evi- 

 dently lost the power of flight. The deposits of 

 New Zealand also reveal the remains of a large 

 goose and rail that have perished in the same way. 

 Before these birds became extinct they lost the 

 power of flight. They differed in many ways from 

 the giant birds. Pycraft in speaking of the dodo 

 said: "This combination of great stature with 

 flightlessness was the outcome of an abundance of 

 food, and the freedom from all necessity of pro- 

 curing this food by flight, or by resorting to the 

 use of the wings for the purpose of avoiding ene- 

 mies. The atrophy of wing had proceeded so far 

 when man entered into this paradise that it had be- 

 come so reduced as to be inferior in size to that of 

 our common rock pigeon. Thus pinioned, it was 

 at the mercy of the invader; who, however, accom- 

 plished the work of destruction unwittingly, and 

 this by the introduction of pigs which devoured the 

 eggs and young." Thus we are reminded by 

 Belloc of the sad fate of the dodo: 



