546 
president’s address. 
especially instructed to look out for it, saw only a single example. 
Mr. Caldwell, who spent upwards of three months in the island, 
Avas lucky enough to jn’ocure for me, from one of the inhabitant.'!, 
the second of the knoAvn specimens, and he says that he saAv 
several of the birds, hut was unable to get near them. It is 
plain its destiny is sealed ; and Avhen I state that only two other 
indigenous species of land-birds are noAV known to exist on this 
distant island, and these are peculiar to it, you can judge of the 
extent to which the extinction of its avi-fauna has been carried. 
And noAv as to the Seychelles, a little archipelago which, from 
the general similarity of its fauna,'"' I cannot but regard as being 
closely related to the Mascarene Islands proper. From the 
comparatively small influence Avhich man has as yet exerted on 
the group, and the absence (so far as is known) of any of the 
flightless forms of birds, I am not aAvare of any of its species 
Avhich has become extinct, but that the process of extirpation is 
even here at work is very evident. Of its indigenous land-birds 
all but one seem to be peculiar, and several of them appear to 
have a very confined range, being restricted to only a few of its 
islands, and tAvo of them, the Black Parrot [Corar.opsis harklii), 
and the Long-tailed Flycatcher [Terpsiphone corvina), perhaps to 
one or, at the most, tAvo only. It is certain that as cultivation 
extends, and the native forests are destroyed, all these peculiar 
species run great risk of extermination ; Avhile I knoAV that one of 
them— a Parakeet [Paloiornis loardi ) — already has had its numbers 
thinned by direct persecution on account of the damage it inflicts 
on the crops of maize. Of course it is just possible that, if the 
progress of cultivation in these islands is sIoav, some of the 
indigenous species may contrive to adapt themselves to the changed 
conditions in Avhich they will find themselves ; but at the same 
time experience forbids us to expect that this Avill be the case to 
any great extent, and, therefore, I fear Ave must regard the endemic 
* I am of course aware of some peculiarities which the Seychelles 
present, especially in other branches of the animal kingdom, and even in 
the highest of its divisions, the Vertehrata, as Avitness the existence there of 
the group Cascilia, a problem most diflicult of explanation. 
