438 Miscellaneous. 
It takes up in succession the solitaire and the birds I made known 
under the names of Erythromachus Lequati, Ardea megacephala, 
Athene murivora, and Necropsittacus rodericanus*. The ‘ Relation’ 
shows distinctly that the ornithic fauna of the island did not undergo 
any notable modification during the first part of the 18th century, 
since the species mentioned by Leguat were still existing in 1730; 
while we know that in 1761, when the astronomer Pingré staid 
there, the solitaires had become so rare that Pingré speaks of them 
only from hearsay, having never observed them himself. It gives 
no indication about the other land-birds. We have therefore reason 
to think that extinction of these species, commenced probably at the 
time of Leguat’s stay, proceeded with ever increasing rapidity, and 
must have reached its maximum between 1730 and 1760. The 
documents collected at the Ministére de la Marine leave but little 
doubt on the subject; and, thanks to them, we can not only, so to 
speak, be present at the destruction of one group of animals which 
was formerly extremely abundant at Rodriguez (I mean the land- 
tortoises), but also well account for their disappearance. The causes 
which brought about their extinction are, according to all proba- 
bility, those which annihilated the birds. 
In the reports addressed to the Compagnie des Indes, preserved 
in the archives of the Ministére de la Marine, we see that the island 
of Rodriguez was regarded as a sort of provisioning-store, not only 
for the Isle of France and the island of Bourbon, but also for the 
ships frequenting those parts. They came there regularly for tor- 
toises. Already, in 1726 or 1727, M. Lenoir, during his visit to 
the Isle of France, wrote to the council of the Company :— 
“Vessels going to and returning from India must not be suffered 
to go and carry off without discretion the land-tortoises from the 
neighbouring islets; and the captains must be forbidden to send 
their boats to take them without apprising the commandant of the 
island of the fact, and of the number they intend to take away ”’r. 
Butcher’s meat was often deficient at the Isle of France; and we 
find that a regular provisioning-service was gradually organized at 
Rodriguez. The various governors frequently sent ships, which 
returned loaded with tortoises, and had no other destination. In 
1737 M. de la Bourdonnais ordered some expeditions of this kind ; 
but he did not keep an exact account of them, and we cannot judge 
of their importance. On the other hand, M. Desforge-Boucher, in his 
reports addressed to the Company in 1759 and 1760, enumerates 
not only the ships he employed on this service, but also the number 
of tortoises collected and brought away by each of them. Four 
small vessels, ‘la Mignonne,’ ‘]’Oiseau,’ ‘le Vollant,’ and ‘la Pé- 
nélope,’ were at that time appropriated almost exclusively to this 
traffic; and an officer resided at Rodriguez to superintend them. I 
have not space to quote the extracts from the journal of Governor 
Desforge-Boucher where he speaks of these expeditions ; it will suf- 
* The portions of the ‘Relation’ which refer to natural history will 
be published in the ‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles.’ 
+ MS. documents collected under the title of ‘‘ Code de Vile de France,’ 
1556 to 1768 (Archives de la Marine). 
