of the Mascarene Islands. 153 



Rodriguez in a hole which he made in the trunk of a hard 

 tree*. 



After having placed, as I think, the truthfulness of Leguat 

 beyond all doubt, I pass on to his account of the bird, which I 

 take to be an unknown gigantic species. Speaking of the pro- 

 ductions of the island of jMauritius, he says, among other 

 things t, "On voit * * * beaucoup de certains oiseaux qu'on 

 appelle Geans, parce que leur tete s^eleve a la hauteur d^environ 

 six pieds. lis sont extremement haut montez, & ont le cou fort 

 long. Le corps n'est pas plus gros que celui d^une Oye. lis sont 

 tout blaucs, excepte un endroit sous Paile qui est un peu rouge, 

 lis ont un bee d'oye, mais un peu plus pointu; & ses doits des pieds 

 separez, & fort longs. lis paissent dans les lieux marecageux, & 

 les Chiens les surprennent souvent, a cause qu'il leur faut beau- 

 coup de temps pour s'elever de terre. Nous en vimes un jour un k 

 Rodrigue, & nous le primes k la'main tant il etoit gras : c'est le seul 

 que nous y ayons remarque ; ce qui me fait croire qu'il y avoit 

 ete pousse par quelque vent a la force duquel il n'avoit pu resister. 

 Ce gibier est assez bon.'^ This description is accompanied by a 

 figure which represents the bird at about one twenty-fifth of its 

 natural size. I shall now further explain this description and 

 figure. The better, however, to do this and to obtain a more 

 obvious idea of this bird, I have given in Figure 1 [p. 156] the 

 representation of Leguat J. 



Let us, meanwhile, first examine what has been the opinion 

 of other naturalists about this bird. Hamel and Strickland 

 are, so far as I know, the only persons who have off'ered their 

 opinions on the subject §. They had not the least doubt as to 

 the existence of this large animal ; nor can such be possible, 

 since the accounts of Leguat are too precise, and he observed it 

 on two islands at a considerable distance from each other; but 

 they have, in our opinion, completely mistaken this bird. 



* Op. cit. i. pp. 67, 156 ; ii. p. 60. t Hid- n. p. 72. 



X In the lecture at the ordinary meeting of the Natural -History Section 

 of the Royal Academy of Sciences on the 31st October, 1857, it was shown 

 of the natural size. 



§ We find also in Valentyn, Y. ii. p. 152, some remarks on the Oeant 

 of Leguat, e^ddently derived from that author himself. Valentyn's in- 

 quiry whether this Geant may perhaps be the Dodo needs no further 

 explanation in our time. 



