ANIMALS RECENTLY EXTINCT. 643 



coast escarpment which is here about 35 feet high, I found near the edge of the ter- 

 rasse a rather extensive deposit of bones of various mammals and birds arranged in 

 thin layers of sand and sod alternating. The average thickness of the deposit was 

 about 2 feet, and the present area covered in the neighborhood of 600 square feet, 

 though it was evident that it was formerly of much greater extent, the ocean having 

 encroached upon the land and carried away great portions of the terrasse. The bones 

 were in fairly good condition, some of the smaller and delicate ones even excellently 

 well preserved, and none of them showed signs of violence. There were bones of the 

 Arctic Fox, the Sea Otter, the Sea Lion, and other species of seals, as well as various 

 kinds of water birds. Among the Litter a particularly large pelvis of a Phalacro- 

 corax at once attracted my attention, and as I had had Pallas' Cormorant on my mind 

 since I started from Washington, I was not slow in concluding that I had to do with 

 the bones of this bird. Had I had time to dig out the whole deposit I should prob- 

 ably have obtained more boues, but with the above suspicion I did as much digging 

 and collected as many bird bones as the circumstances would allow. 



The boues thus obtained, twenty-three in number, are the only por- 

 tions of the skeleton known to science, all that now exists of Pallas' 

 Cormorant being- four mounted specimens and a handful of boues. 

 There is a slight possibility that Pallas' Cormorant may yet be found 

 about some of the small, uninhabited islands towards the western end 

 of the Aleutian chain, but this is merely a possibility and nothing 

 more. 



AUTHORITIES. 



Standard Natural History, Vol. IV. Birds. Steganopodes, p. 191. L. Stejneger. 

 Contribution to the History of Pallas' Cormorant. Leonhard Stejneger and Frederic 

 A. Lucas. Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. xn, pp. 83-94. 



THE GALAPAGOS ANT) MASCARENE TORTOISES. 



The Galapagos Archipelago, which comprises fifteen small islands, 

 lying directly on the equator, was so christened by the Spaniards of the 

 sixteenth century on account of the abundance of great, black tortoises 

 (galapago) found there. (Plate CIV.) These turtles, of which there are 

 several closely related species inhabiting various islands of the group, 

 are typical land-tortoises of the genus Testudo, characterized by a high, 

 arched carapace, and club feet. The nearest relatives of the Galapagos 

 tortoises are found in the island of Aldabra, to the north and west of 

 Madagascar, and in the Seychelles (see map 3), whither they were in- 

 troduced from Aldabra. There were — the past tense is painful— closely 

 allied species inhabiting the Mascarene Islands, but these were long 

 since " eaten off the face of the.earth by gluttonous man " and the place 

 thereof knoweth them no more. The same fate is impending over the 

 Galapagos tortoises, and sooner or later they will live only in the name 

 of their former abiding place. 



The Galapagos tortoises and their allies present a doubly interesting 

 instance of the peculiar geographical distribution of animals. Not only 

 arc they as a group confined to small islands remote from one another 

 and from the continent, but, with one exception, each species of tortoise 

 is restricted to a single island. 



