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He set off at once for the island, but by the time he got there the cat had killed them all.
館長(zhǎng)立即動(dòng)身去到那個(gè)小島，但是等他到達(dá)那里的時(shí)候，小貓已經(jīng)將所有的鳥(niǎo)殺死了。
Twelve stuffed museum species of the Stephens Island flightless wren are all that now exist.
斯蒂芬島上不會(huì)飛的鷦鷯現(xiàn)在只剩下博物館里那12個(gè)標(biāo)本。
At least we have those. All too often, it turns out, we are not much better at looking after species after they have gone than we were before they went.
關(guān)于鷦鷯，我們至少還有標(biāo)本。可是，結(jié)果證明，物種滅絕以前我們不善照看物種，物種滅絕以后我們的照看能力也往往強(qiáng)不了多少；
Take the case of the lovely Carolina parakeet.
以可愛(ài)的卡羅來(lái)納鸚鵡為例，
Emerald green, with a golden head, it was arguably the most striking and beautiful bird ever to live in North America
那種身體呈翠綠色，頭部是金黃色的小鳥(niǎo)，一度曾被認(rèn)為是北美洲最注目、最好看的鳥(niǎo)類
parrots don't usually venture so far north, as you may have noticed—and at its peak it existed in vast numbers, exceeded only by the passenger pigeon.
正如你會(huì)注意到的鸚鵡通常不會(huì)冒險(xiǎn)去遙遠(yuǎn)的北方，在其鼎盛時(shí)期，它們的數(shù)量投大，只有旅鴿的數(shù)量比它們多。
But the Carolina parakeet was also considered a pest by farmers and easily hunted
但是這種鳥(niǎo)兒曾被農(nóng)場(chǎng)主視為害鳥(niǎo)，而它們又極易受到傷害，
because it flocked tightly and had a peculiar habit of flying up at the sound of gunfire (as you would expect),
因?yàn)樗鼈兛偸浅扇憾w，并且還有一種很獨(dú)特，習(xí)慣‘一聽(tīng)到槍聲，它們會(huì)一哄而起（正如你會(huì)想到的那樣），
but then returning almost at once to check on fallen comrades.
可是它們幾乎馬上又會(huì)重新飛回來(lái)，察看它們應(yīng)聲而落的同伴。
In his classic American Omithology, written in the early nineteenth century,
查爾斯.威爾遜.皮爾在他創(chuàng)作于19世紀(jì)初期的杰作《美國(guó)的鳥(niǎo)類》一書(shū)中，
Charles Willson Peale describes an occasion in which he repeatedly empties a shotgun into a tree in which they roost:
曾經(jīng)描寫(xiě)了這樣一個(gè)情景：有一次，他朝一棵鸚鵡棲息的樹(shù)木接連開(kāi)了幾槍：
At each successive discharge, though showers of them fell, yet the affection of the survivors seemed rather to increase;
每開(kāi)一槍，雖然它們紛紛落地，然而幸存者的愛(ài)心似乎反而增長(zhǎng)。
for, after a few circuits around the place, they again alighted near me,
因?yàn)椋鼈冄刂莻€(gè)地方飛了幾圈之后，又重新飛落在離我不遠(yuǎn)的地方，
looking down on their slaughtered companions with such manifest symptoms of sympathy and concern, as entirely disarmed me.
顯然以一種同情和關(guān)切的目光向下看著它們被殺的同伴，使我再也下不了手。
By the second decade of the twentieth century, the birds had been so relentlessly hunted that only a few remained alive in captivity.
到了20世紀(jì)20年代，這種鳥(niǎo)被濫捕濫殺，只有為數(shù)不多的依然存活著被關(guān)在籠子里。
The last one, named Inca, died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918 (not quite four years after the last passenger pigeon died in the same zoo) and was reverently stuffed.
最后一只名為印加的卡羅來(lái)納鸚鵡，1918年死于辛辛那提動(dòng)物困（不到4年前，最后一只旅鴿死于同一家動(dòng)物園里），它被鄭重其事地制作成了標(biāo)本。
