154 Prof. Schlegel on some Extinct Gigantic Birds 



Hamel * takes it for a struthious bird which, as well as the 

 Solitaire of llodriguez, has been exterminated since Leguat's 

 time. Our reasons why this opinion is entirely incorrect are 

 the following: — 1st, because the Geant of Leguat has a perfect 

 tail with quills and under tail-coverts which reach to its end, 

 and that this tail is carried erect, which is never found among 

 the struthious birds; 2ndly, that the toes are extraordinarily 

 long and slender, and not short and very thick as in all known 

 struthious birds ; 3rdly, that the gape by no means extends, as 

 in the struthious birds, under the eye; 4thly, that the feet are 

 covered over their whole length and breadth with large plates 

 — and not partially or entirely with scales, as seen in the stru- 

 thious birds; 5thly, that in Leguat's description and figure 

 there is no appearance of the peculiar form of the feathers of 

 the struthious birds, whereas he makes this to be so distinctly 

 seen in his Solitaire; 6thly, that this bird lived in marshy 

 places, where the struthious birds do not abide; 7thly, that it 

 could fly ; and 8thly and lastly, that one had been carried away 

 by a storm from Mauritius to Rodriguez, more than a hundred 

 [about three hundred English] miles distant — a sea-voyage 

 which such heavy birds as the Struthionidee could not possibly 

 perform. 



Strickland f has perpetually expressed the opinion that this 

 bii'd has simply been a Flamingo, although the description of it 

 gave him the impression of a Stork. This opinion is really as 

 strange as that of Hamel; for, 1st, the physiognomy or, if you 

 will, the habitus of the bird is quite different; 2ndly, neither the 

 figure nor the description of the bill show any resemblance to 

 that of the Flamingo J ; 3rdly, the neck of the Flamingo is 



* "Der Dodo, die Eiusiedler und der erdiclitete Nazarvogel " in the 'Bul- 

 letin Phys.-Math. de I'Acad. de St. Petersbourg/ 1848, vol. vii. Nos. 6, 6 

 [pp. 65-96]. 



t The Dodo, &c., pp. 60 and 64. Strickland's own words are "The 

 fact is that these Geans are evidently (notwithstanding the Stork-like 

 aspect of Leguat's plate at page 171) Flamingos^ 



X Leguat's expression, "ils ont un bee d'oye," should evidently, and 

 especially from the addition of "mais un pen plus pointu," be understood 

 as having reference to the form in general, and not to the lamellre which 

 the bill of the Flamingo has in common with that of the Geese. When 

 Leguat says of his Solitaire (i. p. 08) "les males ont les pieds de coq 



