51 



July 14, 1846. 

 William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Prof. Owen communicated, as aa ' Appendix to his Memoir on the 

 Dinomis,' some observations on the skuU and on the osteology of the 

 foot of the Dodo {Didus ineptus) . 



After a brief summary of the history of this remarkable extinct 

 brevipennate Bird, in which the reduced highly finished figure by 

 Savery, in his famous painting of ' Orpheus charming the Beasts,' 

 now in the collection at the Hague, was particularly noticed ; and 

 the recent discovery of the skuU of the Dodo amongst some old spe- 

 cimens in the Museum of Natūrai History at Copenhagen was raen- 

 tioned, he proceeded to demonstrate the peculiarities of the Dodo's 

 skuU, by a comparison of the cast of the head of the bird in the Ash- 

 molean Museum at Oxford with those of other recent and extinct 

 species of Birds. 



The Dodo's skuU differs from that of any species of Vulturidce, or 

 any Raptorial Bird, in the greater elevation of the frontai bones above 

 the cerebral hemispheres, and in the sudden sinking of the inter- 

 orbital and nasal region of the forehead ; in the rapid compression 

 of the beak anterior to the orbits ; in the elongation of the compressed 

 mandibles, and in the depth and direction of the sloping symphysis 

 of the lower jaw. The eyes of the Dodo are very small compared 

 ■with those of the Vulturidce or other Raptores. The nostrils, it is 

 true, pierce the cere, but are more advanced in position ; this how- 

 ėver seems essentially to depend upon the excessive elongation of 

 the basai part of the upper mandible before the commencement of the 

 uncinated extremity ; the nostrils are pierced near the commence- 

 ment of this uncinated part as in the Vulturidce, but are nearer the 

 lower border of the mandible in the Dodo. 



The resemblance between the skuU of the Dodo and that of the 

 Albatros is chiefiy in the compression and prolongation of the curved 

 mandibles : there are no traces in the Dodo of the hexagonal space 

 on the upper surface of the cranium of the Albatros, so well de- 

 fined there by the two supra-occipital ridges behind, the two tem- 

 poral ridges at the sides, and the two converging posterior boundai'ies 

 of the supra-orbital glandular fossse in front. There is no sudden 

 depression of the frontai region in the skuU of the Albatros ; the 

 nostrils are near the upper surface of the basai third of the beak in 

 the Albatros ; and the Dodo's cranium is thrice as broad in propor- 

 tion to the breadth of the mid-part of the mandible as in that of the 

 Albatros. 



More satisfactory evidence of the affinities of the Dodo was ob- 

 tained frora a comparison of the bones of the foot, which have recently 



No. CLXI. PaOCEEDINGS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SoCIETY. 



