"vulture-like
frugivorous pigeon." It appears, also, that another short-winged bird of
the same order, called "The Solitaire," inhabited the small island of
Rodrigues, 300 miles east of the Mauritius, and has been exterminated by
man, as have one or two different but allied birds of the Isle of
Bourbon.[976]

_Rapid propagation of domestic quadrupeds over the American
continent._--Next to the direct agency of man, his indirect influence in
multiplying the numbers of large herbivorous quadrupeds of domesticated
races may be regarded as one of the most obvious causes of the
extermination of species. On this, and on several other grounds, the
introduction of the horse, ox, and other mammalia, into America, and
their rapid propagation over that continent within the last three
centuries, is a fact of great importance in natural history. The
extraordinary herds of wild cattle and horses which overran the plains
of South America sprung from a very few pairs first carried over by the
Spaniards; and they prove that the wide geographical range of large
species in great continents does not necessarily imply that they have
existed there from remote periods.

Humboldt observes, in his Travels, on the authority of Azzara, that it
is believed there exist, in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, twelve million
cows and three million horses, without comprising, in this enumeration,
the cattle that have no acknowledged proprietor. In the Llanos of
Caraccas, the rich hateros, or proprietors of pastoral farms, are
entirely ignorant of the number of cattle they possess. The young are
branded with a mark peculiar to each herd, and some of the most wealthy
owners mark as many as fourteen thousand a year.[977] In the northern
plains, from the Orinoco to the lake of Maraycabo, M. Depons reckoned
that 1,200,000 oxen, 180,000 horses, and 90,000 mules, wandered at
large.[978] In some parts of the valley of the Mississippi, especially
in the country of the Osage Indians, wild horses are immensely numerous.

The establishment of black cattle in America dates from Columbus's
second voyage to St. Domingo. They there multiplied rapidly; and that
island presently became a kind of nursery from which these animals were
successively transported to various parts of the continental coast, and
from thence into the interior. Notwithstanding these numerous
exportations, in twenty-seven years after the discovery of the island,
herds of four thousand head, as we learn