276 Zoological Society. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 July 14, 1846.— Wm. Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Prof. Owen communicated, as an ■ Appendix to his Memoir on the 

 Dinornis,' some observations on the skull and on the osteology of 

 the foot of the Dodo (Didus ineptus). 



After a brief summary of the history of this remarkable extinct 

 brevipennate Bird, in which the reduced highly finished figure by 

 Savery, in his famous painting of ' Orpheus charming the Beasts/ 

 now in the collection at the Hague, was particularly noticed ; and 

 the recent discovery of the skull of the Dodo amongst some old spe- 

 cimens in the Museum of Natural History at Copenhagen was men- 

 tioned, he proceeded to demonstrate the peculiarities of the Dodo's 

 skull, by a comparison of the cast of the head of the bird in the Ash- 

 molean Museum at Oxford with those of other recent and extinct 

 species of Birds. 



The Dodo's skull differs from that of any species of Vulturidce, or 

 any Raptorial Bird, in the greater elevation of the frontal bones above 

 the cerebral hemispheres, and in the sudden sinking of the inter- 

 orbital and nasal region of the forehead ; in the rapid compression 

 of the beak anterior to the orbits ; in the elongation of the compressed 

 mandibles, and in the depth and direction of the sloping symphysis 

 of the lower jaw. The eyes of the Dodo are very small compared 

 with those of the Vulturidce or other Raptores. The nostrils, it is 

 true, pierce the cere, but are more advanced in position ; this how- 

 ever seems essentially to depend upon the excessive elongation of 

 the basal part of the upper mandible before the commencement of the 

 uncinated extremity ; the nostrils are pierced near the commence- 

 ment of this uncinated part as in the Vulturidce, but are nearer the 

 lower border of the mandible in the Dodo. 



The resemblance between the skull of the Dodo and that of the 

 Albatros is chiefly in the compression and prolongation of the curved 

 mandibles : there are no traces in the Dodo of the hexagonal space 

 on the upper surface of the cranium of the Albatros, so well defined 

 there by the two supra- occipital ridges behind, the two temporal ridges 

 at the sides, and the two converging posterior boundaries of the supra- 

 orbital glandular fossae in front. There is no sudden depression of 

 the frontal region in the skull of the Albatros ; the nostrils are near 

 the upper surface of the basal third of the beak in the Albatros ; and 

 the Dodo's cranium is thrice as broad in proportion to the breadth 

 of the mid-part of the mandible as in that of the Albatros. 



More satisfactory evidence of the affinities of the Dodo was ob- 

 tained from a comparison of the bones of the foot, which have recently 

 been very skilfully and judiciously exposed by the able Curator of 

 the Ashmolean Museum. 



The tars o- metatarsal bone most resembles in its thickness and 

 general proportions that of the Eagles, especially the great Sea- 

 Eagles (Haliaetus) ; it is much stronger than the tarso-metatarsus of 



