624 Dr. R. W. Shufeldt on the 



lot of specimens — was sent to my Washington home for 

 examination ; it included a small lot that had been col- 

 lected a few years previously by Mr. Louis L. Mowbray, 

 who is now attached to the New York Aquarium of New 

 York City. 



Hardly had I made a superficial examination of this 

 famous collection, when it was amplified through the 

 courtesy of Mr. Edward McGall, of Orange, New Jersey, 

 who very generously added his private material, of the 

 same character, to that which Dr. Lucas had already sent 

 me; indeed, Mr. McGall was the fortunate one who had 

 collected all these interesting specimens, apart from the 

 few Mr. Mowbray had obtained. Both explorers had 

 secured their finds first-hand in the almost inaccessible and 

 very beautiful Bermudan caves. 



As it did not appear to be at all likely tiiat any new 

 additions would be made to what I now had on hand, I gave 

 the series a fairly thorough investigation ; and I was satisfied 

 that all the bones — there was a long string of them — 

 belonged to various sea-birds, apparently to such forms as 

 we know as Shearwaters and Petrels. In addition, I found 

 one or two shells, examples of which are still to be found 

 on these islands in great numbers. Finally, T found the 

 fossilized claw of a ci'ab, which, although found elsewhere on 

 the Atlantic seaboard, was not known to have ever occurred 

 in Bermuda. This constitutes a beautiful example of that 

 class of cases where a harmless and inconspicuous animal 

 will, for some unknown reason, become entirely extinct 

 over enormous areas, and still remain in existence in 

 others. 



These Bermudan caves are very recent in their formation ; 

 they certainly are not, at the very limit, more than five 

 centuries old, and maybe a century or so less. My par- 

 ticular interest centred about the unravelling of the history 

 of the famous bird long known by the name of " Cahow " 

 and by several other names, which are not necessary to 

 enumerate here. At one time the " Cahow '^ was extremely 

 abundant on these Bermuda Islands, and bred there in 



