Dr. Frank's What's-it

Tibbles

The Stephens Island Wren may have been the only passerine bird entirely incapable of flight. In any case, its flightlessness evolved during its long residence on the island, where there were not enough threats to make the ability to fly worth retaining. Once people settled the island to the extent of building a lighthouse there, the species was both discovered and exterminated by the lighthouse keeper's cat, Tibbles, whose kills supplied the specimens that are found today in several collections around the world.

--Murray Gell-mann, from the afterword to Fred Bodsworth's Last of the Curlews. Posted by Dr. Frank at March 13, 2006 06:54 AM | TrackBack