ITTTRODUCTION OF BIRDS. 121 



of its flesh and its oil made it one of the most important resources 

 of the inhabitants of those sterile regions, and it was naturally an 

 object of keen pursuit. It is supposed to be now completely ex- 

 tinct, and few museums can show even its skeleton. 



There seems to be strong reason to beheve that modern civiliz- 

 ation is guiltless of one or two sins of extermination which have 

 been committed in recent ages. New Zealand formerly possessed 

 several species of dinornis, one of which, called Tnoa by the island- 

 ers, was larger than the ostrich. The condition in which the 

 bones of these birds have been found and the traditions of the 

 natives concur to prove that, though the aborigines had probably 

 extirpated them before the discovery of New Zealand by the 

 whites, they stiU existed at a comparatively late period. The 

 same remarks apply to a vdnged giant the eggs of which have 

 been brought from Madagascar. This bird must have much ex- 

 ceeded the dimensions of the moa, at least so far as we can judge 

 from the egg, which is eight times as large as the average size of 



balance \ qz. exactly. I think, therefore, that these 2,077 bundles can not well 

 contain fewer than 56,160 feathers, and, allowing 20 of them to each bird 

 (which I believe to be a fair allowance), we have evidence of the death of 2,808 

 herons or egrets. The next page relates to 2,948 similar bundles, weighing 

 1,168 oz., showing, on the same estimate, 4,672 birds. To this follow other 

 lots, which in like manner I compute to represent 2,220 birds — or, in all, 9,700 

 herons or egrets. All these lots are said to have arrived from India, and 

 nearly all to have been warehoused last autumn. The spoils of how many 

 more birds were included in the catalogue itself, to which this is a first sup- 

 plement, or of how many in the second supplement, I of course can not say ; 

 but even if there were none, I venture to affirm that no country could long 

 supply nearly 10,000 herons or egrets, killed in a single breeding season, with- 

 out the stock becoming utterly rooted out. Yet I am told that there is one or 

 more of these sales almost weekly. But this sale included also the skins of 

 other birds — mostly, to all appearance, from South America or its islands. Of 

 these there are enumerated 15,574 humming-birds, 740 of which are specified 

 as being of one kind, the ruby humming-bird. I will not occupy your space 

 by giving details of the rest — sufficient to say that parrots, kingfishers, trogons, 

 tanagers, and various other brightly-coloured birds are there by the thousand. 

 It may be that the Government of India might take steps, by establishing a 

 close time, to save the herons and egrets from utter extirpation, and the same 

 might be done in our colonies of Trinidad and Demarara, whence I have rea- 

 son to think that many of the other victims are procured. But the most effect- 

 ual remedy would be for every right-minded man or woman to discountenance 

 the wearing of feathers on the person or their use in the decoration of fur- 

 niture." 



6 



