2l8 



EXTERMINA TION 



Perhaps, also, there were other Ralline birds, but the evidence on 

 this head is inconclusive. From Rodriguez, the greater part of its 

 original Avifauna has vanished. There was a small but j^eculiar 

 Owl, Athene murivora, a big Parrot, Necropsittacus rodericanus, a 

 Dove, Erythrcena ( ? sp. ign.), a large brevipennate Heron, Ardea 

 megacephala, and a singular Rail, described as Misenithrus leguati, 

 but perhaps not generically distinct from the MaMritism' Aplianapteryx 

 — besides other birds of which we know from old voyagers,^ though 

 their remains, from the numerous caverns of the island, have not 



Extinct Starling of Reunion, Fregiliqms varius, adapted from figures by Daubentoii, 

 Levaillaut, and others. Reduced. 



yet been determined, as those of the species above mentioned have 

 been. A second Parrot, or rather Parrakeet, Palseornis exsul, still 

 exists, but in very small numbers, and the only two specimens 

 known to have been obtained are in the Museum at Cambridge. 

 (Ibis, 1872, p. 31 ; 1875, p. 342, pi. vii.) 



With the examples of these Mascarene Islands before us, it is 

 not without reason that Ave suppose a like fate to have befallen 

 many of the feathered inhabitants of other places exposed to similar 



collection, the only skin believed to be in the British Islands. For a notice of 

 other specimens see Salvadori, Afti Soc. Torino, xi. pp. 481-488. 

 1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, pp. 39-42. 



