I. PBZ0PHAP8. ti'31 



weight of the Bodies ; they serve only to heat themselves, and 

 flutter when they call one another. They will whirl about for 

 twenty or thirty times together on the same side, during the space 

 of four or Ave Minutes : The Motion of their Wings makes them a 

 Noise very like that of a Rattle ; and one may hear it two hundred 

 Paces off. The Bone of their Wing grows greater towards the 

 extremity, and forms a little round Mass under the Feathers as hig 

 as a Musket Ball : That aud its Beak are the chief Defence of this 

 Bird .... some of the Males weigh forty-five pounds. The 

 Females are wonderfully beautiful, some fair, some brown ; I call 

 them fair, because they are of the colour of fair Hair : They have a 

 sort of Peak like a Widow's upon their Breasts (lege beaks), which 

 is of dun Colour. No one Feather is stragling from the other aU 

 over their Bodies, they being very careful to adjust themselves, and 

 make them all even with their Beaks. The Feathers on their 

 Thighs are round like Shells at the end, and being there very thick, 

 have an agreeable effect. They have two Risings on their Craws, 

 and the Feathers are whiter than the rest, which lively represents 

 the fine Neck of a Beautiful Woman. They walk with so much 

 Stateliuess and good Grace, that one can not help admiring and 

 loving them ; by which means their fine Mein often saves their lives. 



" We find in the Gizzards of both Male and Female a brown 

 Stone, of the bigness of a Hens Egg, 'tis somewhat rough, flat ou 

 one side, and round on the other, heavy and hard. We believe 

 that this Stone was thero when they were hatch'd, for let them 

 never be so young, you meet with it always. They have never but 

 one of 'em, and besides, the Passage from the Craw to the Gizzard 

 is so narrow, that a like Mass of half the bigness cou'd not pass. 

 It served to whet our Knives, better than any other Stone what- 

 sovever." 



According to D'Heguerty this bird was larger than a Swan. 



Hah. Bodriguez Island. 



«, b. <S 2 skeletons. Rodriguez. Transit of Venus Exp. [C.]. 



Royal Soc. [IV. 

 c, d. Nearly complete Rodriguez. Transit of Venus Exp. [0.]. 



Bets of bones of two Royal Soc. P. . 



individuals. 

 r. A selection of the miscellaneous bones from the coll. 

 of tlie ' Transit of Venus' Expedition. 



f. Proximal end of righl humerus (Strickl. Tr. Zool, Soc. 



iv. pi. .V). if. 1,1')! 



g. Right femur of female (?). 



//. Oast of right femur (Strickl. & Melville, ' Dodo ' &c. 



pi. xiv. If. 4-7). 

 I. Cast of shaft of right lemur. 

 /.-. fragment of right femur (Strickl. Tr. Zool. Soc. iv. 



pi. 55. f. 3). 

 /. Right tibia (Strickl. Tr. Zool. Soc. iv. pi. .v.. f. it. 

 >n. Cast of fragment of tibia in Oxford University Museum 



(Strickl & Mely. op. <-it. pi. w. f. 1). 



