Page 57 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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EXTINCT AND NEARLY EXTINCT SPECIES 35
The Arizona elk was exterminated before the separate standing of the species had been discovered by natiiralists, and before even one skin had been preserved in a museum! In 1902 Mr. E. W. Nelson described the species from two male skulls,—all the material of which he knew. Since that time, a third male skull, bearing an excellent pair of antlers, has been discovered by Mr. Ferdinand Kaegebehn, a member of the New York Zoological Society, and presented to our National Collection of HeadsandHorns. ItcamefromtheSantaCatalinaMountains,Arizona, in1884. Thespecieswasfirstexterminatedinthecentralandnorthern mountains of Arizona, probably twenty years ago, and made its last standinnorthwesternNewMexico. Preciselywhenitbecameextinct there, its last abiding place, we do not know, but in time the facts may appear.
The Quagga, (Equus quagga).—Before the days of Livingstone, Gordon-Cumming and Anderson, the grassy plains and half-forested hills of South Africa were inhabited by great herds of a wild equine species that in its markings was a sort of connecting link between the striped zebras and the stripeless wild asses. The quagga resembled a wild ass with a few zebra stripes around its neck, and no stripes elsewhere.
There is no good reason why a mammal that is not in any one of the families regularly eaten by man should be classed as a game animal. White men, outside of the western border of the continent of Europe, do not eat horses ; and by this token there is no reason why a zebra should be shot as a " game " animal, any more than a baboon. A big male baboon is dangerous; a male zebra is not.
Nevertheless, white men have elected to shoot zebras as game; and underthiscursetheunfortunatequaggafelltorisenomore. Thespecies was shot to a speedy death by sportsmen, and by the British and Dutch farmersofSouthAfrica. Itbecameextinctabout1875,andto-da}^there are only 18 specimens in all the museums of the world.
The Blaubok, (Hippotragus leucophaeus) —The first of the Afri- can antelopes to become extinct in modern times was a species of laro-e size, closely related to the roan antelope of to-day, and named by the early Dutch settlers of Cape Colony the blaubok, which means "blue- buck." Itwassnufifedoutofexistenceintheyear1800,soquicklyand so thoroughly that, like the Arizona elk, it very nearly escaped the annalsofnaturalhistory. AccordingtothecarefulinvestigationsofMr. Graham Renshaw, there are only eight specimens in existence in all the museumsofEurope. Ingeneraltermsitmaybestatedthatthisspecies has been extinct for about a century.
David's Deer, (Elaphurus davidianus).—We enter this species with those that are totally extinct, because this is true of it so far as its wild stateisconcerned. ItisadeernearlyaslargeasthereddeerofEurope, with 3-tined antlers about equal in total length to those of the red deer. Its most striking differential character is its long tail, a feature that among the deer of the world is quite unique.