The Tupelo journal., 1903-04-10

weigh more than 500 pounds. The
group is 600 miles west of Ecuador, to
which country it belongs, but some
day Uncle Sam is likely to buy it for
a coaling station.
Recently there was captured in New
Zealand the fourth specimen ever seen,
SO far as science has recorded, of a
fiightless bird called a notornis. 1t
looks somewhat like a goose, and has
a curious kind of a bill, with a small
wise. Though it cannot fly at all, its
feathers being too soft and yielding, it
is a ir~st-rate runner, and n of its
odd traits is a weakness for thieving,
it's special passion being to steal every
thing it can lay it's beak on.
The first two specimens killed were
sold to the British museum, where
they are now preserved. The third
brought $50 in Dresden, and $1,000 is
said to have been refused for the
fourth, just mentioned.
New Zealand has always been the
great headquarters of fightless birds.
1t was separated from the mainland
some time before the first mammals
made their appearance upon the earth,
and consequently there were no mann
mails there whatever, except a few
bats, until man arrived in the coun-
try. For birds, therefore, it was a
veritable paradise, without a four
legged enemy to fear, and many spe-
cies found so little use for their wings
that those appendages almost disap-
peared. One of these was the motor
mis-, which vas supposed to be entirely
extinct until the fourth specimen
turned up the other day. Quite pos
sibly there are others still surviving.
Another fightless bird of New Zea-
land is the well-known apteryX, which
is not a bit like any other feathered
creature in the world.
There were several species of moa
the largest of them attaining a height
of IA feet and a weight of fully 500
pounds. 1t was a harmless creature
and even helpless, being without pow
er of fight, and slow and clumsy in
all it's movements. Besides, it was
extremely stupid. 1t IA remark
able for it's normo legs and feet,
which were so heavy that it could not
run fast, and it's determination was a
question of only a very short time
when man had arrived on the scene.
The bird that is not a flyer stands a
poor chance for survival in these days.
1t is nov just about 60 years since the
great aux became extinct, and an egg
of this species is worth to-day $1,000.
There are about 72 of the eggs in ex-
i~stence, and the last one sold was dis
posed of at auction in London in 1901
for $1,000. In 1900 a perfect egg
brought $1,67s.
Yet there was a time, in the early
part of the nineteenth century, when
people used to collect great aux eggs
on Funk island by thousands for food,
while the helpless fowls, which could
not fly at all, though they were won
derful swimmers, were utilized whole
sale as bait for fishermen.
Funk island is a lonely rock 80
miles out at sea off the coast of New
foundland. The early settlers of that
country depended to a large extent
upon the flesh and eggs of the great
aux for food, and were accustomed to
make trips for the purpose of obtain
ing the birds, at regular intervals, and
often at great risk, to the far off
islet, which was the principal breeding
place and last retreat of the species.
Sometimes the unhappy fowls were
herded together, in corrals, built by
setting stone slabs on edge, and were
kept confined in this amer until they
were wanted. They were so fat that it
is said they were sometimes used as
fuel for cooking. The final destruc-
ton of the great aux, however, was
due to the demand for its feathers.
and when at length it succumbed, it's
extinction came so suddenly as to take
naturalists unawares. Thus it came
about that there exist to-day only a
very few skins and eggs, preserved in
museums.-Kansas City Star.
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