440 CLASS XV r. 



Sp. Didimcidus strlf/irostris Gould, Gnathodon strigirostris Jardine, Annals 

 of Nat. Hist. XVI. 1845, pp. 174 — 176, PI. IX., Gould Birds of Australia, 

 Part 22, Gbay Oen. of Birds, PI. cxx*. 



Didus L. Bill elongate, thick, curved, witli tip hooked, acute. 

 Nostrils placed at the anterior margin in the membranous part of 

 bill. Tarsi thick, equalling the middle toe in length, reticulate 

 with irregular scales; lateral toes equal. Claws short, thick, blunt. 

 Wings without quills. Tail short, imperfect. 



Sp. Didus incptus L., Edwards Gleanings, PI. 294, Latham Synops. in. 

 PI. 70, Blumenb. Ahb. Naturh. Gegenst. No. 35; the dodo; an unwieldy- 

 bird from the Island Mauritius (lie de France), which was announced and 

 figured by our voyagers of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth 

 centuries, but appears to have been extinct now for more than a century 

 and a half. In England (Ashm. Mus. Oxford) the head and legs of this 

 species is preserved ; a second head (formerly in the Gottorf Museum) is 

 preserved at Copenhagen. Reinhardt first asserted the affinity with the 

 pigeons, which was solidly supported by Strickland and Melville in 

 their extensive and accurate work on this genus. It must suffice that we 

 point out this work, where earlier contributions to the knowledge of the 

 Dodo are fully refeiTed to. TJie Dodo and its kindred, by H. E. STRICK- 

 LAND and A. G. Melville, London, 1848, 4to, with many figures. 



Probably the Solitaire of Leguat, a bird of the Island Rodriguez, 

 belongs also to this family, PezopJiaps solitaria Strickl., Didus solltarius 

 Gmel. This bird is only imperfectly known. More imperfectly known 

 still is a bird with short wings from the Island of Bourbon. Compare 

 Strickland 1. 1. pp. 57 — 60. 



Order IV. Scansores. [Zygodactyli Vieill.) 



Bill of "Various shape; nostrils open. Feet for climbing; four 

 toes, two anterior, two posterior; in a few feet tridactylous, with 

 one toe posterior, hallux deficient. 



Climhing-hirds. — This order is readily distinguished by the cha- 

 racter of the feet with only two toes directed forward, whilst the 

 outer toe (and in some the inner toe) is directed backward. The 

 sternum has mostly two incisures behind on each side ; the furcula 

 is weak. In other respects there is no such close affinity between 

 the different families of this order as between those of the three 

 preceding orders. Climbers in the full sense of the word are in 

 this order the ivoodpeckers (the genus Picus L.) especially, but 

 birds that cUmb as well as they are to be found in the following 

 order. 



