146 Prof. Schlegel on some Extinct Gifjcmtic Birds 



resort for birds of all kinds, and was probably a favourite abode 

 of Dodos and marsh-birds. 



Aged persons who have passed their lives in the woods have 

 assured me that there was formerly a sufficiency of wild fruits 

 to maintain any number of birds large enough to eat them, and 

 that there was such a succession of them as would have sufficed 

 for the whole year. Among these fruits may be mentioned Ficus 

 rubra, F. terebrata, and F. mauritiaiia, three or four species of 

 ebony, the iron -wood, several species of Mimusops, Olea chryso- 

 phylla and O. lancea, CaloplnjUum tatamahaka and C. spectabile, 

 Mithridatea amplifolia, Terminalia mauritiana, Colophonia mau- 

 ritiana, Tossinia mespiloides and T. revoluta ; and I think it 

 likely that the seeds of several species of Pandanus, notwith- 

 standing their hardness, may have been eaten by birds whose 

 digestive powers we may imagine to have been equal to those of 

 the Ostrich. 



If the Dodo ate animal food, I know of nothing coexistent 

 with it in Mauritius that could have afforded it any considerable 

 supply, except snails, of which the woods which remain still 

 contain vast numbers. 



I have opened diggings in several marshes which appeared to 

 me likely receptacles for the relics of the Dodo, but I have not 

 found a single bone except in the Mare aux Songes. Several 

 gentlemen, witnesses of my success there, have made experi- 

 ments in other places, but have obtained nothing. 



Having sent to Professor Owen and Mr. Alfred Newton bones 

 of every kind that I have found, I do not think it necessary to 

 enter into any description of them here, but I hope my commu- 

 nication may still be found sufficiently interesting. 



Mahebourg, January 6, 1866. 



XIV. — On some Extinct Gigantic Birds of the Mascarene Islands. 

 By H. ScHLEGEL, Director of the National Museum of the 

 Netherlands, F.M.Z.S., &c. &c. 



[The interesting events of the last few months, which nave 

 done more to put us in possession of facts relating to the extinct 

 birds of the Mascarene Islands than anything else that has 



