TJIK DOIM). 



463 



repository of this country, liear decisive record of the fact. Tlio most pi'obablc sup- 

 position that we can form on the subject is, that the race has become extinct in the 

 before- mentioned ish;nds, in consequence of the value of the bird as an article of food 

 to the earlier settlers, and its incapability of escaping from pursuit. This conjecture is 

 strengthened by the consideration of the gradual decrease of a nearly conterminous 

 group, the Otis Tarda of our British ornithology, ^yhich, from similar causes, we have 

 ever}' reason to suspect, will shortly be lost to this country. We may, liowcver, still 

 entertain some hopes that the Bidus may be recovered in the south-eastern part of that 

 vast continent, hitherto so little exploi-cd, which adjoins those islands ; and whence, 

 indeed, it seems to have been origiuallj' imported into them. I dwell upon these circum- 

 stances with more particularity, as the disappearance of this group gives us some grounds 

 for asserting, that many chasms which occur in the chain of affinities thi-oughout nature 

 may be accounted for on the supposition of a similar extinction of a connecting species. 

 Here we have an instance of the former existence of a species that, as far as we can now 

 conclude, is no longer to bo found ; while the link which is supplied in nature was of 

 considerable importance. The bird in questign, from every account which we have of 

 its economy, and from the appearance of its head and foot, is decidedly gallinaceous ; 

 and from the insufficiency of its wings for the purposes of flight, it may with equal 

 certainty be pronounced to be of the .sfnithionts structure, and referable to the present 

 family. But the foot has a strong: hind toe, and, with the exception of its being more 

 robust — in which character it still adheres to the Sfnif/tio)iid(e — it corresponds exactly 

 with the foot of the Linna^an genus Cra.r, that commences the succeeding family. The 

 bird thus becomes oscuknt, and forms a strong point of junction between these two con- 

 terminous groups ; which, though evidently approaching each other in general points of 

 similitude, would not exhibit that intimate bond of connexion which we have seen to 

 prevail almost imiformly throughout the neighbouring subdi\'isions of nature, were it not 

 for the intervention of this important genus." 



Thus the existence of the dodo is placed beyond all doubt. It appears that there is a 

 general impression among the people of the jSIauritius, that this bird did exist at 

 Rodriguez as well as in the Mauritius itself; but the oldest inhabitants never saw it, nor 

 has a single specimen been preserved by theni. 



With this bird we conclude our account of the Gallin-B, often called the IIasores, or 

 Rasorial Birds. 



