Bird-Caves of the Bermudas. 6.25 



untold millions at the time of tlie early settlers, some three 

 centuries ago. It was a nocturnal species, possessing dis- 

 cordant notes ; and so fearless of man were these birds that 

 they would alight on the head, shoulders, and arms of any 

 person visititig their breeding-grounds. This unusual fear- 

 lessness resulted in the final extermination of the species ; for 

 the first inhabitants of the islands, and those that followed 

 them in a comparatively short period, utterly destroyed the 

 birds for food, notwitlstauding their enormous numbers. 

 All this has now become a matter of history, and one of the 

 most extensive contributors to it is Prof. Addison E. Verrill, 

 of the present faculty of Yale University. There are a 

 great many writers on the subject, and most of them firmly 

 believe that the Cahow was a Shearwater of the genus 

 Puffinus ; in other words, that it was a bird still to be found 

 on the Atlantic Coast, and known as Audubon's Shearwater 

 (P. Iherminieri). Others, however, doubted this, and be- 

 lieved the bird to be an extinct Petrel ; and there were 

 other opinions in regard to the matter, all of which have 

 been fully set forth in my memoir on the subject, which vAill 

 presently be published by the American Museum of Natural 

 History. A little further on in this article 1 shall refer 

 again to these Bermudan birds ; but I first desire to give a 

 brief account of the caves themselves, and the difficulty that 

 attended the collecting of the subfossil bones which were 

 sent to me for description. 



It is more than likely that a number of these caves still 

 remain to be discovered, while a few, which are known to 

 exist, are so inaccessible that no known explorer has 

 ever ventured to get into them. Even the one in which 

 Mr. McGall found the bird-bones he secured, could only be 

 entered under almost insurmountable difficulty. By means 

 of ropes, and at the imminent risk of his life, he was at last 

 rewarded by being able to tread where no man had ever 

 trod before, and to view scenes that no human eye had 

 previously rested upon. For those who love adventure and 

 yearn to accomplish such feats as this, there is still plenty " 

 of opportunity, in some of the islands of Bermuda, to 

 sEa. X. — VOL. IV. 2 u 



