EXTINCT ANIMALS 



Proctors of the University of Oxford, that the 

 specimen of the dodo should be destroyed. They 

 do not Hke mouldy things at Oxford. But the 

 curator cut off the head and one foot, and kept 

 them. This head and foot, together with another 

 foot in London, and a skull in Copenhagen, are 

 about all we have left of dodos seen in the living 

 state by Europeans. But since the dodo be- 

 came extinct, by digging in the mud of a lake 

 in Mauritius skeletons and bones of it have 

 been found (Fig. 17). 



This (Fig. 18) is another interesting creature, 

 whose kind is on the way to extinction. It 

 is probably the oldest living terrestrial animal. 

 It was brought from the Seychelles, where its 

 kind is rapidly becoming extinct. In different 

 oceanic islands such tortoises have been found 

 of large size. This specimen was brought in 

 1764 to the island of Mauritius, and is still alive 

 there. Thus it has been 140 years in captivity 

 in the Court House Garden, in the Mauritius ; 

 and how old it was when brought there it is 

 impossible to say. 



A question of great interest is — " What 

 makes animals become extinct ? " It is obvious 

 in many cases that another animal, ]Man, inter- 



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