168 



Prof. Owen on a Species of Parrot 



EXPLANATION OF THE ENGEAVINGS [p. 156]. 



Fig. 1 is a copy of Leguat's engraA'ing. 



Fig. 2. The same drawn in profile, and amended from Leguat's descrip- 

 tion. 



Both birds represented ^S'^^ o^ ^^^ natural size. 



XV. — Evidence of a Species, perhaps extinct, of large Parrot 

 (Psittacus mauritianus, Owen), contemporary with the Dodo, 

 in the Island of Mauritius. By Prof. Owen, F.R.S., &c. 



In a paper ou the bones of the Dodo, read before the Zoological 

 Society of London, January 9th, 1866, I noted a part of the 

 lower mandible of a large Psittacine bird in the enumeration 

 of the series of bones which had been transmitted to me by Mr. 

 George Clark from the Mauritius. 



Fis:. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Under or outer view of gonys, 

 Psittacus mauriiianus, Ow. 

 Natural size. 



Upper or inner view of gonys, 

 Psittacus mauriiianus, Ow. 

 Natm'al size. 



This specimen (figs. 1 and 2) has the same deep olive-brown 

 tint as most of the bones of the Dodo, and, from all its physical 

 characters, has been evidently obtained under the same condi- 

 tions ; it may therefore be confidently accepted as evidence of 

 another, perhaps lost, certainly now unknown, species of bird, 

 which formerly existed in the Island of Mauritius. Still, as in 

 all probability the species of Parrot which the present solitary 



