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BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



years ; and the lecture could not fail to be, as 

 Mr. Rothschild observed, melancholy, though 

 extremely interesting in spite of its sadness. It 

 could also not fail to be useful as a lesson and 

 a warning, seeing that, of all the enemies of bird- 

 life, history proves man to be the greatest. In 

 many cases the destruction has been due directly 

 to murderous man ; in others he has been to 

 blame less immediately, through the introduction 

 of animals and birds inimical to the native birds. 

 In some few instances the disappearance of a 

 species is attributable to natural causes ; the last 

 eruption at St. Vincent, for example, annihilated 

 two species of thrushes ; in others to the physical 

 peculiarities of the birds themselves. Where 

 natural influences seem to be still at work in 

 suppressing certain species, investigation into 

 these causes might, the lecturer suggested, be 

 undertaken. The idea was also propounded that 

 where a bird tends to become extinct the Govern- 

 ment of the country where it exists might take 

 measures for its preservation. 



Among the extinct birds, of which specimens 

 were exhibited, were the black emu (only two 

 skins of the dwarf black species are known), the 

 Labrador duck, the Auckland rail, the Hawaian 

 honey-eater, various parrots, the heath-hen, the 

 starling of Reunion, the flightless pigeon, St. 

 Vincent thrush-babbler, Martinique thrush, Mau- 

 ritius pigeon, etc. Of the many extinct New 

 Zealand species not a few probably fell victims 

 to man at the time when the colony was first 

 peopled by whites ; special mention was also 

 made of the celebrated Notornis, "restored'' 

 by Professor Owen from collected bones, but 

 afterwards found to be still in existence in the 

 flesh, and not yet wholly extinct. Of the great 

 auk seventy-one stuffed representatives exist, two 

 of them being in the Tring Museum, the re- 

 mainder mostly in State collections ; one speci- 

 men (the third one exhibited) has just been sold 

 to a Continental museum for ,£400. 



Once on a time there were living some thirty 

 species of moas, the principal members of the 

 biggest bird family ; several of these were extant 

 three hundred years ago, but they were killed 

 wholesale by the firing of the bush in which they 

 lived, and were probably exterminated in New 

 Zealand between 1650 and 1700. The flightless 

 pigeon of the Mascarenes, at least two of which 

 were shown alive in Europe, was recklessly killed 

 by sailors, sometimes for food, but at others for 

 slaughter's sake ; and the passenger pigeon, 

 formerly existing in immense numbers in the 



United States, had been reduced to the brink 

 of extermination in about fifty years, by ruthless 

 destruction. The Labrador duck has become, 

 even more suddenly extinct. The heath-hen was 

 once common ; no less than four specimens, taken 

 by the same collector in St. Martha's Vineyard 

 Island so recently as 1896, were exhibited. But 

 in all the ugly episodes in the history of bird 

 destruction, Mr. Rothschild cited as the most 

 dastardly case imaginable that of the penguins 

 of Antarctic lands, whose wanton slaughter to-day 

 showed the measure of commercial greed, millions 

 of birds being boiled down merely for the sake of 

 the oil thus obtained. 



Among species doomed to, or on the verge of, 

 extirpation were shown the Californian condor, 

 southern merganser, laughing owl, capped petrel, 

 Sandwich Islands goose, New Zealand wekas, 

 Jamaica macaw, several parrots, including the 

 St. Vincent amazon, Azores bullfinch, huia, stitch- 

 bird, parson-bird, New Zealand bush-wren, North 

 Island robin, white-headed tit, and many others. 

 The species still existent, but with extermination 

 already in sight, are chiefly to be found in New 

 Zealand, the West Indies, and the Sandwich 

 Islands ; but from the array of names read out by 

 Mr. Rothschild, and the immense collection of 

 specimens from every region inspected by the 

 naturalists present, it is evident that bird pro- 

 tectionists all over the world have their work cut 

 out if even a remnant of these are to be saved. 



Antarctic Birds. 



The penguin may be considered to have been 

 the special and particular bird of the Congress. 

 In addition to the prominent allusion made to him 

 in Mr. Rothschild's lecture, he figured largely in 

 the excellent lectures given by Dr. Wilson and 

 Mr. Bruce, and finally formed the subject of the 

 sole piece of executive work undertaken by the 

 Congress. 



The dangers which menace the penguins of 

 certain islands within the antarctic zone were 

 forcibly pointed out by Dr. Wilson, of the 

 Discovery, at the last annual meeting of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds ; and the 

 account he gave to the Congress of these birds, 

 incited all who heard it to advocate strenuously the 

 protection of the species. 



The Antarctic Expedition, in which Dr. Wilson 

 was engaged, started from New Zealand, covering 

 the ground of the Ross expedition. Their route soon 

 gave them a near acquaintance with albatrosses, 

 snow petrels, penguins, and other antarctic birds, 



