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ON EXTINCT AND VANISHING BIRDS. 



A short Essay on the Birds which have presumably become extinct 

 within the last 500 years, and also of those Birds which are on 

 the verge of extinction, including a few which, though not yet 

 so far gone, are threatened with extinction in the near future. 



By the Host. Walter Rothschild, Ph.D., M.P. 



The theme I have chosen on this occasion doubtless strikes 

 many as being a rather melancholy one ; but its extreme 

 interest, I hope, will compensate for its sadness. 



There may be some also who think that I ought not to 

 include under this heading such birds as the Moas, Harpag- 

 ornis, Gnemiornis, etc., which have been attributed to the 

 geological Pleistocene epoch by such great authorities as Dr. 

 H. O. Forbes. I think, however, that we have pretty con- 

 clusive evidence that many of the Moas were alive up to 300 

 years ago, and as the other birds were clearly contemporaneous 

 they ought to be included in this paper. Taking first the 

 absolutely extinct species : these are at once divisible into 

 two main sections ; firstly, those species only known at the 

 present time from bones, eggshells, and a few feathers ; and 

 secondly, those of which entire specimens exist in museums, 

 or of which we know the exact appearance from paintings, 

 drawings, and the descriptions of early travellers. 



Both these categories are again divisible into three separate 

 sections : first, those exterminated by man ; second, those 

 which owe their extermination indirectly to man ; and third, 

 those which appear to owe their extinction entirely to natural 

 causes, either outward influences or the physical condition of 

 the creatures themselves. 



In the first section we find species which have been exter- 

 minated by man, who used their flesh as food, while others, 

 such as the Dodo, appear to have been to some extent 

 wantonly slaughtered. In the second section, man has con- 

 tributed indirectly to the destruction of these birds by the 

 introduction of animals of prey, noxious insects, and other 

 birds. In section 3 the outside influences consist of volcanic 



