February 1, 1898.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



21 



^^ AN ILLUSTRATED ^W 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 



SIMPLY WORDED— EXACTLY DESCRIBED 



LONDON: FEBRUARY 1, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 



PiOE 



The Extinction of Animals. Hv R Lypekkei!. B.A.C'nntab. 21 



Fluorescence and Phosphorescence. Hv Vauohan 



CORXISH, M.Sc. F.f'.S. 24 



The Telel-Amarna Tablets. By J. 11. Mitchinkr. 



F.R.A.S 25 



Rival Alkali Manufactures. By ('. V. TdwNsEXi), F.C.S. 27 



Letters:— E. [,\'I)hkm;k, I!.A. Caiitub. ; \)r. \. HitEsTiin, .Iz. 28 



Science Notes 30 



The Lunar Apennines, liy A. (_'. RANrAitu 31 



Caterpillars— IV. By E. A. Butlbr 33 



The Astronomy of Shakspeare. By Lieut. -Col. E. E. 

 Maekwick, F.K.A.S 



The Face of the Sky for February. By Herbert 



Sadler, F.E.A.S 



Chess Column. By C. D. LococK.B.A.Oxon. 



35 



38 

 39 



THE EXTINCTION OF ANIMALS. 



By R. Lydekkee, B.A. Cantab. 



IF it be true that, as compared with the pre-glacial 

 epoch, we are living in an impoverished world so 

 far as the larger forms of animal life are concerned, 

 it is even more certain that our immediate descen- 

 dants will be the heirs of a still more depopulated 

 globe. Already the bison has disappeared from the 

 American prairies, while of the vast swarms of antelopes 

 and other large mammals which hali'-a-century ago peopled 

 the plains of Africa scarce a tithe remains, and a few are 

 well nigh, or even totally, extinct. A few years ago, 

 indeed, it appeared that we were likely ere long to witness 

 the complete extermination of many species of the larger 

 African mammals ; but, although we can never expect to 

 see them again in their original multitudes, several of the 

 South and East African governments are now taking 

 measures to ensure the preservation of a few of the 

 various species, and there is accordingly some hope that 

 although the nineteenth century will ever deserve the 

 reproach of posterity, as having been the one during which 

 the world was to a great extent depopulated of the larger 

 forms of animal life, yet that it will escape the crowning 

 shame of having actually exterminated a host of species. 

 Still, however, the indictment against our generation is heavy 



enough in all conscience ; and there is no reasonable doubt 

 but that the destructiveness which is so characteristic of 

 human nature — whether civilized or otherwise — has led to 

 the total extinction of two species of large African mammals 

 within the last thirty years, while a third is only too hkely 

 to share the same fate. On the other hand, it must not 

 be assumed that all the animals known to have become 

 extinct within the historic period have succumbed directly 

 to this demon of destructiveness. In certain cases, as we 

 shall see in the sequel, the introduction of other animals 

 by human agency has been the involuntary means of 

 leading to the final extinction ; while occasionally, as in 

 the case of the great auk, a catastrophe of Nature has 

 accelerated the climax. In other instances, it would 

 appear that a species has been gradually dying out from 

 unknown natural causes, in the manner which appears to 

 be natural to all forms of animal life, where species and 

 genera, like individuals, have but a certain allotted span 

 of existence. 



In the present article we propose to notice the chief 

 animals, exclusive of invertebrates, which are known to 

 have been exterminated, or are just verging on extinction, 

 within the historic period ; but before doing so we may 

 briefly allude to a few others which urgently require pro- 

 tection, unless they are to share the same fate. Foremost 

 among these are the African elephant and the so-called 

 white, or square-mouthed, rhinoceros of the same country. 

 Till within the last few weeks there were, indeed, strong 

 grounds for believing that the latter magnificent animal, 

 which at present is represented only by a few skulls and 

 horns in English collections, had already disappeared ; but 

 we are rejoiced to hear that a few individuals still linger 

 on in a remote corner of Eastern Africa, where it is to be 

 hoped they will receive immediate and adequate protection. 

 The walrus of the polar regions is another animal whose 

 numbers have been woefully diminished of late years, and 

 which likewise stands in urgent need of protective legisla- 

 tion, while a similar remark will apply to several species, 

 or local races, of seals. In countries like New Zealand, 

 where there were originally no native carnivorous animals, 

 many of the indigenous creatures now stand in great 

 jeopardy by the introduction of the latter, and it is only 

 too likely that the flightless kiwi of those islands, noticed 

 in our article on " Giant Birds," will eventually be exter- 

 minated by half-wild cats and dogs. The curious tuatara 

 lizard of the same country is also likely to be killed ofl^ by 

 pigs. In the Samoan Islands a similar fate long threatened 

 the tooth-billed pigeon {Duluncidus) — the nearest living 

 ally of the dodo— but the impending destruction was for- 

 tunately averted by the bird having forsaken its original 

 habits and taken to perching on trees. 



Strictly speaking, the moas of New Zealand come 

 within the category of animals exterminated within the 

 historic period, since they were almost certainly killed ofl' 

 by the Maories ; but as we have no direct historic evidence 

 of their existence, no further mention of them will here be 

 made. We shall commence our survey with three species 

 which were the first to succumb. 



When the Dutch Admiral Van Neck visited Mauritius 

 in the year 1598, he found that island inhabited by a 

 number of ungainly, flightless birds, which he called 

 walkvogel (disgusting fowl), but which were afterwards 

 termed by the Portuguese dodo (from <loiiiio, a simpleton). 

 Subsequently, many living examples of this bird (the form 

 of which is probably well known to our readers) were 

 exhibited in Holland, and their portraits painted by the 

 two artists Savary. The museum at Oxford also once 

 possessed a stuffed specimen, which, with the exception of 

 the head and a foot, were eventually destroyed, as being 



