Recent Ornithological Publications. 227 



sincerely thanking him for a most useful contribution to the 

 ornithology of his native country. 



6. Russian. 



In a paper communicated to the Imperial Academy of Sciences 

 of St. Petersburg on the 11th (23rd) of April, 1867, but only 

 recently published^, Professor Brandt returns once more to the 

 much-disputed question of the affinities of the Dodo. His pre- 

 vious investigations of this subject were made some twenty years 

 previously t ; and an abstract of them was published in a " Post- 

 script" to Strickland and Melville^s work {' The Dodo,' &c. pp. 

 120-122), showing the author's opinion to be that "the Dodo 

 was better placed as a Cursorial bird in the vicinity of the 

 Plovers." It is unfortunate, we think, that Prof. Brandt's later 

 remarks were made prior to the publication of Prof. Owen's 

 elaborate description of the osteology of this interesting form in 

 the ' Transactions ' of the Zoological Society, and are chiefly 

 based on the labours of MM. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, Gervais, 

 and Coquerel [cf. Zool. Record, iii. pp. 105, 106), and the paper 

 of Mr. George Clark published in this journal (Ibis, 1866, pp. 

 141-146). Prof. Brandt summarily disposes of the hypothesis 

 of MM. Gervais and Coquerel, who follow De Blainville, and 

 would ally the Dodo to the Vultures, but criticises at some length 

 the Pigeon-theory, which, we believe, is the one now generally 

 adopted. He lays great stress on the fact that the Dodo-bones 

 found by Mr. Clark in the Mare aux Songes were in company 

 with those of many water-birds, and thence argues in favour of 

 the first having aquatic habits. After passing in review the vari- 

 ous points presented by the authors we have named and some 

 others. Prof. Brandt states that the questions which have to be 

 answered are (1) whether the Dodo should stand as an anoma- 

 lous form beside the Pigeons, (2) whether it would be moi'e 

 conveniently enrolled among the Waders, or (3) whether in con- 

 sequence of its mixed characters it should be regarded as the 

 type of a peculiar order. Each of these questions, he considers, 



* Melanges Biologiques tires du Bulletin de TAcad^mie Imperiale dea 

 Sciences de St. Petersbourg, torn. vi. pp. 233-253. 



t Bull. Phys. Math. Acad. St. Petersb. vii, p. Ill d mj. 



q2 



