Miscellaneous. 475 
is seen to be the case in the Struthionide ; in other cases the keel is 
developed in a normal fashion, but the lateral plates are very imper- 
fectly ossified and reduced to mere narrow rods. This arrangement 
occurs in the ordinary Gallinaceous birds, and is carried to a great 
extent in the Tinamous. 
If the Dodo were a Columbide merely modified to live upon the 
ground, we ought to expect to find a sternum constructed like that 
of the Pigeons, except a greater or less atrophy of the sternal keel, 
a narrowness of the hinder part of the entosternal, or an absence of 
ossification in a portion of the lateral plates ; but this is not the cha- 
racter of the sternum in the Dodo. This pectoral buckler, which is 
remarkably thick and much arched, presents on each side of the 
keel a very broad and solid surface for the insertion of the thoracic 
muscles. The structure of the anterior portion is likewise different 
from that which occurs in the Columbide ; and here everything 
seems to me to indicate a peculiar ornithological type. The femur, 
the tibia, the fibula, and the tarso-metatarsal present much resem- 
blance to the bones of the foot in the Pigeons, but also differ in 
various anatomical characters. 
To sum up, we see that the Dodo, as was shown by Reinhardt and 
other authors cited above, presents incontestable affinities with the 
Pigeons, but that the resemblances, although striking when we con- 
fine ourselves to the comparison of the feet, disappear to a great ex- 
tent when we take into consideration the other parts of the skeleton, 
especially the pelvis and the sternum. Now the conformation of 
these osseous parts is so intimately bound up with that of the 
economy in general, that it seems to me impossible not to lay great 
stress upon them when we have to appreciate the zoological affinities 
of birds. We also see that the modifications which among the Co- 
lumbide coincide with an adaptation of the organization more and 
more to a terrestrial mode of life, do not lead towards those which 
we have indicated in the Dodo. I think, therefore, that, in a natural 
ornithological classification, this bird, although occupying a place 
beside the Columbide, cannot be regarded as a walking Pigeon, that 
it cannot enter into the same family, and that it must be classed 
in a separate division of equal value.—Comptes Rendus, April 23, 
1866, pp. 929-932. 
s 
