2l6 



EXTERMJNA TION 



or Mauritius, by the Dutch under Van Neck at the end of the 1 6th 

 century, was found to inhabit that island. Voyagers have vied 

 with each other in describing or depicting its uncouth appearance, 

 and its name has ahnost passed into a byword expressive of all 

 that is effete. Clumsy, flightless, and defenceless, it soon suc- 

 cumbed, not so much to the human invaders of its realm as to the 

 domestic beasts — especially Hogs ^ — which accomjDanicd them, and 

 there gaining their liberty, unchecked by much of the wholesome 

 discipline of nature, ran riot, to the utter destruction (as will be 

 seen) of no inconsiderable portion of the Mauritian fauna. 



Extinct Crested Parrot of Mauritius, Lophopsittacus maiiriUamis. Adapted from a tracing 

 by M. A. Milne-Edwards of the original drawing in a MS. Journal kept during Woljjliart 

 Harmanszoon's voyage to Mauritius, a.d. 1601-1602 (</. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 350). 



But the Dodo is not the only member of its Family that has 

 vanished. The little island which has successively borne the name 

 of Mascaregnas, England's Forest, Bourbon, and Reunion, and lies 

 to the southward of Mauritius, had also an allied Bird, now dead 



^ 111 La Roqiie's account of the Voyage de l' Arabic Heureusc (Paris: 1715) in 

 1708-10 (tlie first made by the French) it is stated that the ships touched at 

 Mauritius in September 1709 and that "de I'autre cote de I'isle audela des mon- 

 tagnes on ti'ouvoir force sangliers, qui faisoient un tel degat, qu'on avoit depuis 

 peu ordonne une chasse generale pour les detruire, & que les habitans s'etant 

 assemblez, on en tua en un jour plus de quinze cens " (p. 175). A few days after 

 he writes : "en me promenant dans leur jardin, j'eus le plaisir de voir de derriere 

 la haye plus de quatre niille singes dans le champ voisin " (p. 183). In regard to 



