94 



Vespertilio emarginatus, was added by Fleming. Aware, or, at least, suspecting-, 

 from our own cursory observation, that some few still remained undistinguished 

 and undescribed, still we were little prepared for the acquisition of ten new species 

 of British Cheiroptera. Such, however, is absolutely the case : seventeen species 

 are now enumerated as inhabiting Great Britain ; and so clearly characterized, 

 both by Mr. Jenyns and Mr. Bell, as to leave no shadow of a doubt upon the 

 zoologist's mind, of their perfectly distinct nature. 



This large addition having rendered necessary a new systematic distribution of 

 the British Cheiroptera, we propose, in our next Number, to present a Synoptical 

 Sketch of the Families, Genera, and Species, according to Mr. Bell's principles of 

 characterization and plan of arrangement. To this, we shall prefix a cursory view 

 of the anatomical structure of the Order to which these curious and interesting ani- 

 mals belong : sincerely hoping that the little information which our confined limits 

 will allow us to communicate, may spur on many of our readers to a deeper study of 

 this yet unexhausted subject, and to a profitable use of the abundant sources from 

 which our own supplies will be principally drawn — the admirable History of 

 British Quadrupeds, by Mr. Bell ; and the Article, Cheiroptera, in Dr. Todd's 

 excellent Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology. 



EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



1. — M. De Blainville has published, in the Nouvelles Annates du Museum 

 de VAcademie des Sciences, an account of the Dodo, or Dronte (Dipus ineptus, 

 L.). This remarkable bird, only at present known by an oil painting of a dried foot 

 preserved in the British Museum, and a head and foot in the University of Oxford, 

 has occupied much of the ornithologist's attention. It is, in fact, a remarkable 

 circumstance that a bird of such magnitude should no longer be found, and that 

 it should, as it were, have passed away from the face of nature. Besides 

 the reflections that may attach to this and other circumstances, de Blainville has 

 principally directed his researches towards establishing the zoological position of 

 this strange bird. In 1497 and 1499, the Dodo was abundantly found by the 

 Portuguese in an island beyond the Cape of Good Hope. The Dutch, in 1598, 

 also found it in the same island, now called Maurice Island (Mauritius), Isle de 

 Bourbon, Isle de France. Clusius, a Dutch author, in 1605, gave a description 

 of this bird, under the name of Walgh-Vogel, or a disgusting bird, on account of 

 its tough and bad-scented flesh. In 1634, Herbert describes this bird under the 

 name of Dodo, which it still retains : he describes it as weighing upwards of fifty 



