ANIMALS RECENTLY ])\ riNCT. <> 1 P> 



^ration took place, and as the farms were abandoned by man, their 

 former occupants again took possession, and by 1888 and 1800 antelope 

 became not uncommon, while the mule deer appeared in localities 

 where none had been seen for years. The felling of forests, burning- over 

 of land, and draining of swamps are the grosser factors of agriculture, 

 and produce some of the more evident changes, but other far-reaching 

 though indirect results follow the alterations thus made in physical 

 character and food supply. A good example of local extermination 

 is to be seen in the Virgin Islands, where the land mollnsks were com- 

 pletely destroyed by the practice of burning over the land, and only dead 

 shells remain to show their former abundance in that locality. Drainage 

 and extended cultivation have driven many birds from Great Britain in 

 spite of efforts to retain them, including the wild goose, crane, and bus- 

 tard, while clearing away forests about the headwaters of streams has an 

 important bearing on the decrease of front, whose favorite spawning- 

 grounds are thereby dried up. Other fish are destroyed, driven out, 

 or prevented from entering streams by the pollution of water caused 

 by sewerage and factories, by the erection of impassable dams, and, in 

 some cases, by the sediment caused by hydraulic mining on a large 

 scale. In fact, almost every accompaniment of civilization has some 

 ett'ect on wild animals. Telegraph wires kill thousands of birds on the 

 prairies and electric lights are equally destructive in cities, and so in 

 various ways the ranks of the wild animals are becoming rapidly thinned 

 out. Although regret at the impending or actual extermination of a 

 species is often purely a matter of sentiment, there is no lack of in- 

 stances where the strictest utilitarian is quite as much interested as 

 the naturalist in the preservation of a species from destruction. The 

 pity of it is that in so many cases a small amount of protection would 

 not only preserve for the naturalist the animals he wishes to study, but 

 furnish the " practical 1 ' man with an additional source of wealth. 



The following papers are based on some of the specimens contained 

 in the collections of the IT. S. National Museum, and their object is to 

 note a few of the more important or interesting animals that have re- 

 cently become extinct, or whose extermination seems imminent, and to 

 show the cause of their destruction. This, in nearly every instance, is 

 reckless slaughter by man, and although species have occasionally be- 

 come extinct in recent times from natural causes, such cases are the 

 exception and not the rule. Of necessity these accounts have been 

 gathered from various sources, the most important of which are given, 

 but it may be said that although so largely compilations, they contain 

 in a condensed form information that is widely scattered, and often not 

 readily accessible.* In many cases the works referred to contain very 

 full bibliographies of the animals under consideration. 



* I am indebted to Dr. Leonhard Stejneger for the article on the Mauio, and to Drs. 

 Buchner and Radde for information concerning European bison. — F. A. L. 





