of the Mascarene Islands. 147 



happened, at least since the publication of Mr. Strickland^s well- 

 known work, have naturally excited much attention among orni- 

 thologists. We therefore take occasion to present our readers 

 with a translation of the valuable paper contributed in 1857 to 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam*, which, being ori- 

 ginally written in the Dutch language, is probably unknown to 

 the majority of them, though a translation into German of part 

 of it appeared in the 'Journal fiir Ornithologie' for 1858. Its 

 reproduction here will of course not be taken as necessarily in- 

 volving our entire acquiescence in all the opinions of the writer ; 

 but at the same time we think it advisable that English natu- 

 ralists should not be unacquainted with Professor Schlegel's 

 views. — Ed.] 



The islands of Bourbon [Reunion], Mauritius, and Rodriguez, 

 which form a natural geographical group and can be classed to- 

 gether under the name of the Mascarene Islands, have been (espe- 

 cially in recent times) the subject of repeated inquiries respecting 

 the large birds which have become extinct, or rather have been 

 extirpated, within the last century or two, and which formerly 

 inhabited these islands, but are not met with in other regions of 

 the globe. Every one knows that the species of these birds 

 hitherto with more or less certainty determined are regarded as 

 belonging to one group only — that of the Dodos, so named because 

 the large species, that of the island of Mauritius, the Dodo 

 proper, is the best known and is especially the most remarkable 

 from the size and shape of its bill. Every one knows, also, that 

 these birds have given rise to several singular, nay even extra- 

 ordinary, opinions concerning their true form, and that they 

 from the first have attracted the surprise of the unlearned as 

 well as of naturalists. 



It will perhaps cause new surprise when I now announce that, 

 notwithstanding these frequent investigations, some large birds 

 formerly existing on the islands above named have been over- 

 looked or mistaken, and that one of them was a species which, 

 in height at least, equalled the African Ostrich, and, further, that 

 it did not belong to the Dodos, but to quite another order of birds. 



* Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Weten- 

 schappen. Afdeeling Xatuurkimde, vol. vii. p. 116. 



l2 



