The Gull Island Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus nesophilus) is a subspecies of the Meadow Vole last collected in 1897. A ground-dwelling coastal beach grass herbivore endemic to Gull Island, New York, it disappeared after habitat destruction for naval fortifications in August 1898 for the Spanish-American War. Also, feral cats were also partly responsible in its decline. It is known from fifteen specimens in Washington, D.C.
Famous quotes containing the words gull and/or island:
“She that but little patience knew,
From childhood on, had now so much
A grey gull lost its fear and flew
Down to her cell and there alit,
And there endured her fingers’ touch
And from her fingers ate its bit.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I should like to have seen a gallery of coronation beauties, at Westminster Abbey, confronted for a moment by this band of Island girls; their stiffness, formality, and affectation contrasted with the artless vivacity and unconcealed natural graces of these savage maidens. It would be the Venus de’ Medici placed beside a milliner’s doll.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)