ANIMALS OF LONG AGO 351 



Marsh. The reconstructed skeleton shows the bird to have been 

 a diver, in size about five feet from bill to toe. Like the Archaeo- 

 pteryx its jaws were furnished with teeth, and it was probably 

 addicted to fishing. To some extent it was like the modern Pen- 

 guin, but it had not the same wing development. It would depend 

 mainly upon its tail for propulsion through the water. The wings, 

 indeed, were quite rudimentary. Another Cretaceous bird was the 

 Ichthyornis, which differed from Hesperonis in having its wings 

 well grown. It was of the aquatic type, its jaws were toothed, but 

 it was no bigger than a Rook. Quite a score of species of 

 Cretaceous birds have been found in fossil state. 



THE DODO. While the subject of extinct birds is before us, it 

 may be well for us to give some attention to the famous Dodo 

 (Didus ineptus). This bird, now extinct, but which was found alive 

 in the island of Mauritius so late as the seventeenth century, was 

 allied to the Pigeons, but was larger than a Swan. Owing to 

 generations of laziness, probably caused by absence of necessity to 

 fly far afield in search of food, the wings of this bird degenerated 

 to such an extent that they were useless for flight. The Dodo 

 seems to have settled down to a life of ease and the development 

 of adipose tissue. It was fat and heavy, but managed to maintain 

 a tolerable existence until man arrived in Mauritius and introduced 

 Pigs there. The Pigs occupied the island and devoured the eggs 

 and young of the Dodo, and the seamen and colonists killed the 

 old birds, defenceless and flightless, in great numbers. The 

 Mauritius was uninhabited by man until 1598, when some Dutch 

 seamen were wrecked there; it was colonized in 1644, and in 1693 

 not a single Dodo was in existence. A live Dodo was exhibited 

 in London in 1638. This bulky and defenceless bird could exist so 

 long as the environment to which it had adapted itself remained 

 undisturbed, but* its extinction was inevitable when man arrived 

 upon the scene. Extinction was the price it had to pay for genera- 

 tions of indolence and the consequent atrophy of the power of 

 flight. It is a law of Nature that organs not used degenerate, and 

 in course of time disappear. 



THE MOA. The Moa is another bird which is said to have be- 

 come extinct through the incursions of man. The Moas inhabited 

 New Zealand and must have been common there. About fifteen 

 species were once in existence. They were land-running birds, 

 after the nature of the Ostrich ; they varied in size, the dwarf species. 



