EXTERMINATION IN AMERICA. The list of the larger animals lost to America since its redis covery and settlement by Europeans is a long one. Whether or not a native horse lingered in small numbers in South America is a matter of dispute. If there was such an animal, it so quick ly disappeared and was replaced by herds of escaped Spanish horses as to have left no trace of itself. The story of the extermination of the bison, of which the only remaining wild rem nant at the opening of the twentieth century was a herd of about 250 ill the forests north of the North Saskatchewan, is familiar to most readers. (See BISON.) Several marine mammals of our shore have suffered or are doomed to speedy extinction. The ease of the rhytina of Bering Sea has been noticed. Its relative, the manatee, is all hut extinct in Florida. and rare elsewhere. The fur-seal of the North Pacific (see SEAL) seems likely to die out within a years, as also does the walrus, now wholly Arctic, except in the neighborhood of Bering Strait. There formerly existed in great numbers along the Californian coast a local sea-elephant (see ELEPHANT SEAL) which until about 1850 furnished profitable seal ing. This ended in 1884, when what were prob ably the last living specimens on the coast were taken at San Cristobal Island. for preservation in the United States National The few elephant seals still remaining about Cape Horn represent an expiring race. The West Indian monk seal (.11onachus tropiealis), once common around the Gulf of :Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, had been mainly killed off by 1S50, and since then has lingered only on a small group of islets, the Triangles, north of Yucatan, where an acci dent may easily put an end to the small band.
In respect to birds, the New World has suf fered much hiss by the changes incident to civili zation. The hest known case. perhaps, is that of the great auk (see (:AREFolvi.), which was lit erally hunted off the face of the earth. It should be said, however, as in several other eases. that this species had a very limited distribution and waning. Its migrations once extended south ward along the west coast of Great Britain to the Bay of Biscay, in Europe; and in America southward to ('ape Hatteras. Evidence of this is derived from finding its bones in prehistoric shell-hcaps along the coast. It seems to have occa,ionally visited Norway, hut it never was an Aret ie hint Its extermination was no doubt largely effected prehistorically, for within the time of records it has rarely been known to visit, even the Hebrides, and its hreeding-plaees were few. It had bred abundantly from time immemorial on the Garefowl Sker•ies, WIT the southwest coast of Iceland, and might have re mained there had not a volcanic disturbance in ISIM de troyed the islets. The survivors fled to Elde• but as this was more accessible_ the colony was raided repeatedly by fishermen, and in 1844 the last pair of auks was killed. This ended the history of the garefowl in Europe. How long certain Greenland colonies lasted is not known. In 1534 the men sailing with
Jacques Cartier to the discovery of the Saint Lawrence River found on Funk Island, off Cape Bonavista, on the northeastern coast of New foundland, a resort of these and other sea-birds, where the 'penguins' (for this term was first applied to this species, and later transferred to the SpheniseicW were breeding in thousands. The indiscriminate slaughter of these birds came to an end at an uncertain time, probably about 1840. According to a list published in England in 1888, 79 skins were known to exist, with 10 skeletons and 68 eggs. A third of these are pre served in public musenms in various parts of the world, and the remainder are privately owned. When by chance these remains are sold very high and rapidly increasing prices are paid. At a notable auction sale of an ornithological collection in London in 1S95, one skin in excel lent condition was sold for 360 guineas (about Slson), and an egg brought ISO guineas (about $900). A very complete account of the history of the great auk, together with a full bibliog raphy, may be found in F. A. Lueas's aceonnt of his expedition to Funk Island, in ISS7, to re cover relies of the bird. published in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for ISSN.
The next most conspicuous instance of the loss of an American species of bird is the ease of the wild or 'passenger' pigeon, which within the last half of the nineteenth century disappeared (but not completely), in a manner not easily ac counted for, from a great region in the central United States where previously it had been sur passingly numerous. Its history will be found in the article PIGEON. The Eastern pinnate() grouse (see article GnousE) survives only in a few examples on the island of Nantucket, which, in spite of legal protection, seem des tined to early extinction by semi-wild house eats. The Carolina parrakeet (q.v.) is a small parrot once very common throughout the lower Mississippi Valley, now to he found ( if at all) only in a few remote swamps of the Gulf Coast; and the large Cuban macaw (A ra tri color) is supposed to he wholly extinct. Another bird of that region, the ivory-billed woodpecker (q.v.), is probably wholly gone. It is believed that the Antilles and lesser of the West Indian islands have been deprived of many species of birds and other animals since they were first colonized, because recent collectors have been un able to find several species described by early writers, and others have become extremely rare. Newton mentions the loss of a species of petrel (.1:strelata hrrsitata) of Dominica killed off by a carnivorous marsupial unintentionally intro dneed into that island; and the imingoos (q.v.1 is extirpating a related petrel in :lam:lien. Pally, the California condor (q.v.) has been added most lately to the list of vanished American birds. not a single pair apparently remaining, even in the deserts of Lower California.
Por the decrease or disappearance of certain fishes, see FISHERIES BIB] FISH CULTITRE.