386 FACTS AND INFERENCES, GRAVE AND GAY. 



species of wild cattle, the aurochs or European bison (B. 

 priscus) — exists now only in the forest of Bialowicksa, 

 from whence the Emperor of Russia has recently trans- 

 mitted a living pair to the Zoological Society of London. 

 Several kinds of birds are also evidently on their last legs. 

 For example, a singular species of parrot {Nestor pro- 

 ductus), with the termination of the upper mandible much 

 attenuated, peculiar to Phipps's Island, near Norfolk 

 Island, has recently ceased to exist there in the wild state, 

 and is now known as a living species only from a few 

 surviving specimens kept in cages, and which refuse to 

 breed. The burrowing parrot from New Zealand is 

 already on the road to ruin : and more than one species 

 of that singular and wingless bird, called Apteryx, also 

 from the last-named island, may be placed in the same 

 category. Even in our own country, if the landed pro- 

 prietors were to yield to the clamour of the Anti-Grame- 

 Law League, the red grouse or moor-game might cease to 

 be, as they occur nowhere else on the known earth save 

 in Britain and the Emerald Isle. — Blackwood's Magazine, 

 1849. 



METALLIC LUSTRE IN ANIMALS. 



We may here say a few words regarding the occurrence 

 of this so-called metallic lustre throughout the general 

 range of the animal kingdom, including therein that per- 



