r 



The Dodo and its Kindred. 55 



. Detached islets, like the Galapagos, for instance, are often in- 

 habited by terrestrial forms allied to those of the nearest conti- 

 nent although hundreds of miles distant, and evidently never 

 connected with them : analogous beings having been introduced 

 f without making a violent break in the system of nature. The 



three small volcanic islands whose ancient birds form the subject 

 of the present volume, although placed at considerable distances 

 apart, are still nearer to each other than to any contiguous land. 

 They lie in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. A few of 

 their indigenous plants and animals are either allied to, or iden- 

 tical with, the products of Africa : — the larger number resem- 

 ble those of Madagascar ; while certain species are confined to 

 the islands themselves, especially a peculiar group of birds, specifi- 

 cally distinct in each island, yet allied in their general characters, 

 and remarkably isolated from any known forms in the world. 

 1 These birds were of large size and grotesque proportions, the 

 wings too short and feeble for flight, the plumage loose and de- 

 composed and the general aspect suggestive of gigantic immatu- 

 rity. " The civil history of these birds, if we may so speak, 

 is as remarkable as their organization. About two centuries 

 ago, their native isles were. first colonized by man, by whom 

 these strange creatures were speedily exterminated" — and "so rap- 

 idly, that the vague descriptions of early navigators were long re- 

 garded as fabulous or greatly exaggerated, and these birds, almost 

 cotemporary with our great grandfathers, became associated in 

 the minds of many persons with the Griffin and the Phoenix of 

 mythological antiquity." M The object, of the present work is to* 

 vindicate the honesty of the rude voyagers of the seventeenth 

 century — to concentrate the evidence — to describe the few re- 

 gains- — to excite farther inquiry, and fix the rank of these birds in 

 the system of nature. 7 ' 



These birds technically called the Didina, " furnish the first 

 clearly attested instance of the extinction of an organic species 

 through human agency, although other instances have occurred 

 both before and since* and many species of animals and plants 

 are now dying away under the advance of human population." 



In the case of the Didinae our only sources of information are 



he rude narratives of unscientific voyagers, a few oil paintings 



ar *d a few scattered osseous fragments, which have survived the 



For example, the Irish Elk— Cerrus megaceros, and the Bos primigi 



/ ! rus ' destroyed in ancient, and the Dugong in modern limes. The Au 



tson prisms is even now preserved only by imperial protection in th« 



Cerrus megaccros. and the Bos primigenius, or 



orhs or 

 *>*fon prist -its is even now preserved only by imperial protection in the Bialo- 

 JT™5 forest in Russia, and the Czar Nicholas" lias lately presented a living pair to 

 j, ^ 00 *ogiral Gardens of London. The JYcstor products— n parrot of Phillip's 

 s, and near Norfolk Island, is now extinct; and the few surviving individuals con- 

 ned ia cages refuse to breed. There is also a burrowing parrot, Strigops habrop- 



u*t irom New Zealand, and there are still surviving two or perhaps three species- 

 01 - i iptertjx. 



