4.54 



EXTINCTION OF SPECIES. 



[Cn. XLII 



trees of Australia, are growing rapidly. In fact, the young 

 native vegetation appears to shrink from competition with 

 these more vigorous intruders.'"^" 



Spix and Martins have given a lively description of the 

 incredible number of insects which lay waste the crops in 



s wuie . 



Brazil, besides swarms of monkeys, flocks of parrots, and 

 other birds, as well as the paca, agouti, and wild 

 They describe the torment which the planter and the natura- 

 list suffer from the musquitoes, and the devastation of the 

 ants and blatta3 ; they speak of the dangers to which they v/ere 

 exposed from the jaguar, the poisonous serpents, crocodiles, 

 scorpions, centipedes, and spiders. But with the increasing 

 population and cultivation of the country, say these natura- 

 lists, these evils will gradually diminish ; when the inhabitants 



mar 



man 



by degrees, triumph over the rank vegetation and the noxious 

 animals, and all the elements will second and amply recom- 

 pense his activity, t 



Indigenous quadrupeds and Urds extirpated in Great Britain. 



make some enquiries into the extent of the influence 

 which the progress of society has exerted during the last 



the distribution of 

 indigenous British animals. Dr. Fleming, in an able memoir 

 on the subject, has enumerated the best authenticated 

 examples of the decrease or extirpation of certain species 



seven or 



eight centuries, in altering 



rapid advances. 



made 



most 



The 



stag, 



as well as the fallow deer and the roe 



t 



were 



formerly so abundant in our island, that, according to Lesley, 

 from five hundred to a thousand were slain at a hunting- 

 match ; but the native races would already have been ex- 



tmguished, had they not been carefully preserved in certain 

 forests. The ottpi\ ihf^ 



mar 



sufficient numbers to be pursued for the sake of their fur ; 

 but they have now been reduced within very narrow bounds. 



Locke Travers, cited by Hooker, 

 Nat. Hist. Eev. 1864, p. 124. 



t Travels in Brazil, vol. i. p. 260. 



J Ed. Pliil. Journ., No. xxii. p. 287 

 Oct. 1824. 



