EXTINCT ANIMALS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2104, 1 February 1908, Page 4 (Supplement)

EXTINCT ANIMALS.

RAPIDLY VANISHING FROM MANY LANDS.

'The fact that almost every vc.ir sees the final extinction pt.wue oi more 'animal and bird species passes well-nigh -unnoticed. These cxtinc tions occur, perhaps, most' frequeuly among the more cirrous and abnormal varieties, many ot them cell worthy of sturdier attempts at pie sei'vat ion than the efforts which, in a few cases, are made, Even mi iecent rears many species have passec into oblivion without so -much as he manner of their going, being heeded or observed. . a . In animal extinction Atrica m iccent centuries has suffered severely. It has lost for ever the qu.igga, which, though once plentiful, was exterminated 'about i 860; the bluebuck, destroyed by the 'Dutch, according to Sir Harry Johnston, in tho early years of the nineteenth century, and tho white-tailed gnu, which if it has not entirely vanished, is on tho very vorge of extinction, .he square-lipped and miscalled nnitt rhinoceros and the South African gemsbok are rapidly approaching a But deeply as Africa lias .to dcploie her losses in animal species, the islands of the Indian Ocean have suffered equally by the extirpation oi many noteworthy birds. The greatest celebrity among these is certainly the time-honored dodo. " hen Mauritius was taken possession ot by tho Dutch in 1598 the .dodo was a comp-arativelv common bird. 00. helpless was this great, flightless pigeon, however, -and so useful was ‘ food for seamen and settlers, that in less than a century it had completely vanished. The valuable feathers ot the ostrich provide against its wanton extinction iby man, though most of its kindred have already passed or -are doomed, such as tlie New Zealand moa, and the Tasmanian emu. The bison roamed the North American prairies in millions in the middle of the -nineteenth century. For thirty years -previous to that time the -nitlhless slaughter of these magnificent boasts by -bands of Indian hunters made serious inroads among them. Vast numbers remained,however, until their doom was fixed by the construction of tho great transAmerioan railways, and they passed away for ever from their native prairies. In carefully protected preserves a -few small herds still exist. Another vanished creature as telebrated for its untimely fate as U o stately bison is the great auk. Before 1800 this bird was common even to abundance on the rocky coasts and islets oi the north. By 1825 it had become rare, and twenty years later the last known specimen was wantonly killed. , In Europe, all of the few largo wild animals remaining hold ground of uncertain tenure. The last wild aurochs appear to have been killed in Poland in 1627, though degenerate descendants, many of them of feral stock, still linger in the parks and preserves of Eastern Europe. 111 the United Kingdom the destruction lias been most- thorough. The last wild hoar in Britain passed before the reign of Charles 1. • the wolf was exterminated in Scotland in 1690, and thirty. years later, the killing of the last wolf in- Ireland, finally extinguished tho race in tho British Isles.