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gigantic birds, wo must necessarily connect the question about the 
causes of the final extermination of other large animals of the 
present period. It is in the “struggle of life”, that we are to seek 
the clue to the solution of this problem. 
There are many facts, showing that in the struggle for exist- 
ence, man acts the main part; that man has already swept quite 
a number of species from the surface of the earth, and that it is 
chiefly the largest animals that first succumb. We may even say, 
that all the larger animals are gradually being exterminated ex- 
cepting those , which as domestic animals save their existence merely 
by their absolute dependence on man. The reasons for this are quite 
obvious. The animal is either useful or noxious to man. If it be a 
large animal , its useful or noxious qualities are the greater ; and 
in both cases man will strive to kill the beast, either in order to 
secure to himself the benefits of it, or to avert the great damage. 
This struggle of extermination will last a longer or shorter time, 
according to the number of individuals engaged, or, — since in 
the case of large animals , it can be only comparatively small upon 
a given space , — in proportion to the greater or smaller area of 
distribution of the animals in question. The huge animals once 
populating the forests of Europe, furnish a great many examples and 
proofs , too well known to require any further explanation. I will 
mention only two facts to show, how rapidly often the struggle is 
brought to a close with species having only a very limited range 
of distribution, how little there remains of such animals extermi- 
nated by the hand of man, and how fast every thing relating thereto 
is forgotten. 
About the middle of the eighteenth century , during Behring’s 
second voyage, in 1741, the Zoologist Steller discovered on the 
coast of Behring’s Island near Kamtshatka a colossal seacow, the 
Rhytina Stelleri, great numbers of which lived on that coast. Its 
body weighed 80 cwts.; and the savoury meat and the lard being 
great inducements to give it chase, as early as 1768 already the 
last specimen is said to have been killed. Consequently twenty-seven 
short years sufficed to sweep the last trace of that animal from 
