4 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



of the Atlantic it probably disappeared somewhere about 

 the year 1840; while the summer of 1844 witnessed the 

 destruction of the last European pair of this remarkable 

 bird, the last British representative of the species having 

 been hunted to death in the neighbourhood of Waterford 

 Harbour ten years previously. 



One of the most sad storiesof extermination, and that, 

 too, at a comparatively recent date, is revealed in the case 

 of the South African quagga. Since a full account of the 

 species is given in a later article, it will suffice to state here 

 that in Cape Colony the extermination apparently took 

 place about the year 1865, although the species may have 

 survived a few years longer in the Orange River Colony, 

 which was the last stronghold of the species. 



Mention has already been made of the extermination of 

 the giant land-tortoise of Reunion during the eighteenth 

 century ; and in the early part of its successor four other 

 species became extinct in the neighbouring islands of the 

 Mascarene group — namely, Testiido indica, T. triserrata, and 

 T. inepta in Mauritius, and T. vosmaeri in Rodriguez. It 

 has hkewise been considered probable that the thin-shelled 

 tortoise (T. abingdoni) of Abingdon Island, in the Galapagos 

 group, is also no longer existing, although it was certainly 

 alive as recently as 1875- 



Of birds that have disappeared during the century, in 

 addition to the great auk, reference may first be made to 

 the black emeu {Dromaeus ater) of Kangaroo Island, South 

 Australia. When this island was explored in 1803 by a 

 French expedition, these birds were abundant, and three 

 were sent home to Paris, where a pair lived till 1822. On 

 their death, the skin of one and the skeleton of the other 

 were mounted for exhibition in the Paris Museum, where 

 they still remain. Of the third specimen no record was 



