ANIMALS RECENTLY EXTINCT. 



631 



on every possible opportunity in order that they may use the quills as 

 receptacles for gold dust, the destruction thus caused would naturally 

 be but small. The free use of strychnine in ridding' the cattle ranches 

 of wolves and coyotes has caused the disappearance of this bird, which 

 has been poisoned by feeding on the carcasses prepared for the four- 

 footed scavengers. The California Vulture is now extremely rare, and 

 in spite of many efforts to obtain specimens of this interesting bird few 

 have been taken of late years, those few coming from southern Cali- 

 fornia, which now seems to be the chief habitat of this Vulture. 



THE DODO AND THE SOLITAIRE. 

 (Didus inepUis and Pezophaps solitaria.) 



What the brahma is among domestic fowls the dodo was to a far 

 greater extent among the order of pigeons, a grotesque, aberrant, and 

 gigantic member of the group. The first mention of the dodo* is in an 

 account of the voyage of the Dutch Admiral Jacob Cornelius Van Neck 

 to Mauritius in 1598. The dodo is there called Walckvogel, or dis- 

 gusting fowl, partly on account of the toughness of portions of its flesh 

 and partly because even the best portions of the dodo were poor in 

 comparison with the tender meat of the abundant doves. This curious 

 bird was found only in Mauritius. Another closely related species, the 



iS€YCHCLLES! 



AlOABffA 



MAURITIUS 



ftODRIGUCZ 



BOURBON 



Map 3.— Distribution oi didlne birds. 



Solitaire of Leguat {Pezophaps solitaria) was found in Rodriguez, and 

 probably a third member of the family at Bourbon, this last species 

 being known only from the description of travelers, for not even a bone 

 of it has ever come under the ken of naturalists. This peculiar distri- 

 bution of didine birds is analagons to that of the Galapagos tortoises, 

 although not quite so extraordinary, since the islands of Mauritius, 

 Reunion, and Rodriguez are much farther apart than are those of the 

 Galapagos Archipelago, and the chance of animals being accident- 

 ally transported from one to another consequently much less. Mauri- 



From the Portuguese Doildo, a simpleton. 



