of the Mascarene Islands. 165 



Zealand, exhibit the same peculiarity : for instance, in New Zea- 

 land, besides Notornis, there are Ocydromus, the Kiwis [Apteryx), 

 and the Moas {Dinornis, Palapteryx, &c.), and in the Mascarene 

 Islands the different species of Dodos — besides that the wings 

 of the Giant Waterhen seem to have been shorter than is usually 

 the case. Of the Oiseau bleu it is said that it ran extremely 

 fast. Although, now, this characteristic belongs to the Water- 

 hens in general, it is yet especially mentioned with regard to 

 Notornis^. Finally the colours of our Oiseau bleu, both of its 

 feathers and its bill and feet, agree with those of Porphyrio, and 

 fit, indeed, no other genus of birds of this form, size, or habits. 

 So much for the " Oiseau bleu." We think, in our remarks 

 on these extinct birds, that we have offered a new contribution 

 to the better knowledge of the exceedingly interesting Fauna of 

 the Mascarene Islands. When we now consider the nature and 

 the distribution of these animals, in connexion with the little 

 spots, scattered in the immeasurable ocean, which they inhabited, 

 and then compare what w^e observe here and in other regions, 

 whether close to us or far distant, new and entirely wonderful 

 phenomena present themselves. The first that strikes us is that 

 these islands are completely destitute of land-mammals except 

 bats ; the second, that they, in proportion to their small extent, 

 harboured a considerable number of birds, which were charac- 

 terized by their short wings and, further, by their peculiar forms 

 or more than ordinary size; the third, that these wonderful and, 

 in their kind, unique aberrations in this Fauna are not accom- 

 panied by similar or somewhat obvious aberrations in the Flora 

 of these islands. Not less striking is the remark, that we see 

 all these phenomena repeated in New Zealand f- We may thus 



* Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. iv. p. 70. 



t With the exception of a rat, which, however, has perhaps been in- 

 troduced by ships, no mammals have been met with in New Zealand, 

 though, according to the inhabitants, one of about two feet long lives, or 

 has formerly lived, there. We may remark here, to prevent any possible 

 misunderstanding, that the first voyagers to India, as appears from many 

 passages in their wi-itings, left on most of the islands or places where they 

 lauded all sorts of domestic animals, especially horned cattle and swine. 



