PAST AND FUTURE OF ANIMAL LIFE 145 



nourished themselves on the eggs of the birds. The 

 destruction of the Dodo and Solitaire by the intro- 

 duced pigs is an instance of the common fact that 

 man causes more havoc by unwittingly disturbing the 

 balance of nature than by his immediate destructive- 

 ness. The Island of St Helena, when first discovered 

 in 1501, supported a dense vegetation of forest trees, 

 among which the valuable Red Wood and Ebony were 

 pre-eminent ; the forest protected a rich undergrowth 

 and the soil was abundant and fertile. At the present 

 time the forest trees have disappeared and with their 

 disappearance the soil has been washed away by the 

 tropical rains, and the island is barren and desolate. 

 This work of destruction was chiefly effected by the 

 introduction of goats by the Portuguese in 1513, 

 which ran wild over the island and browsed down 

 the young seedlings ; the extermination of the forest 

 was encouraged by the ruthless cutting down of the 

 trees by the colonists, and the rich soil which was the 

 work of geological epochs to create can never be 

 replaced. 



The Islands of New Zealand were inhabited by 

 several different kinds of Moa, gigantic flightless 

 birds related to, though much larger than, the Ostrich ; 

 judging from the abundance of their remains they 

 must have existed in large numbers, but their ex- 

 tinction was brought about by the Maoris who 

 colonized New Zealand from the Polynesian Islands 



S. A. K. 10 



