EXTERMINATED ANIMALS 5 



obtainable till 1900, when its skeleton was discovered by 

 Prof. Giglioli in the museum at Florence. These three 

 priceless specimens are the only examples of a species 

 which became extinct in the native state previous to the 

 death of the Paris pair, and before it was even known to 

 be different from the larger emeu of the mainland. For 

 it appears that some years after the visit of the French 

 expedition (to which Peron was naturalist) to Kangaroo 

 Island, a settler squatted there and forthwith set to work 

 to make a clean sweep of the emeus and kangaroos a 

 task in which he was only too successful. 



Before the middle of the century another large bird 

 appears to have made its final exit from this world. When 

 Steller discovered the northern sea-cow in the islands of 

 Bering Sea, he also brought to the notice of science a 

 new species of cormorant (Phalacrocorax perspicillatus), 

 which was especially interesting on account of being the 

 largest representative of its kind, and likewise by the bare 

 white rings round its eyes and the brilliant lustre of its 

 green and purple plumage. Stupid and sluggish in dis- 

 position, Pallas's cormorant, as the species is commonly 

 called, appears to have been last seen alive about the year 

 1839, when Captain Belcher, of H.M.S. Sulphur, was pre- 

 sented with a specimen by the Governor of Sitka, who also 

 forwarded other examples to St. Petersburg. Captain 

 Belcher's specimen is preserved in the British Museum, 

 and three other skins are known to be in existence 

 elsewhere. 



The great white water-hen (Notornis albus), formerly 

 inhabiting Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, must be added 

 to the defunct list. And the same is the case with the 

 Tahiti white-winged sandpiper, or rail (Hypotoenidia pacified), 

 which in Captain Cook's time was abundant in the island 



