138 Mr. H. E. Strickland on the Dodo and its Kindred. 



ColumbidcB ; each of these three had eleven plates in the sclerotic 

 ring ; being the precise number figured in the Dodo. No other 

 bird had a similar number, and none so small a number, with 

 the single exception of the Australian Podargus, in which bird 

 the sclerotic ring is composed of one single bone, without the 

 smallest trace of a division into separate plates. No abstract of 

 my paper on the svibject was published in the proceedings of that 

 meeting, and its contents were never made public. 



"I exhibited the rings of eight species of Raptores; the 

 smallest number of sclerotic bones in this order was fourteen ; 

 and seven species of Gallinidce, thirteen being the smallest num- 

 ber of plates. 



" I thought this confirmatory evidence of the correctness of 

 your views could not be otherwise than acceptable to thee ; if 

 thou considerest it of sufficient importance to deserve to be made 

 known through one of our scientific periodicals, be so good as to 

 get it inserted. 



" Thy sincere friend, 



"Thomas Allis." 



Let me here, in passing, express an earnest hope that some 

 means may be found of giving to the public the benefit of the 

 valuable and original researches of Mr. Allis, which have hitherto 

 been retained in MS. by that "great difficulty" of natural-history- 

 authors, the expense of illustrative engravings. 



3. Historical evidences of the Solitaire. — In a recent explora- 

 tion of the precious collection of foreign periodicals in the Bod- 

 leian library, I discovered a work of which I had long been in 

 quest, the ' Memoires de la Societe Royale des Sciences et Belles 

 Lettres de Nancy,' 4 vols. 12°, Nancy, 1754-1759. The Pre- 

 sident of the Society, M. d'Heguerty, had been governor of 

 Bourbon about 1734, and in a discourse which he delivered 

 March 26, 1751, he entertained the Nancy savans with an ac- 

 count of the Mascarene Islands. Speaking of Bourbon, he men- 

 tions pintados, partridges, and other birds, but says nothing of 

 the brevipennate birds of that island, though we have proof that 

 they still existed in the time of La Bourdonnaye, d'Heguerty's 

 successor (see ' Dodo and its Kindred,' p. 60). He atones how- 

 ever for this omission by the following interesting notice of the 

 Solitaire of Rodriguez, which is the more valuable as our previous 

 historical evidence of that bird was almost wholly confined to the 

 single testimony of Leguat. We now find that this bird survived 

 from the time of Leguat's visit, 1693, down to about 1735, and 

 that, like the Dodo, it was capable of being kept alive in con- 

 finement. 



At vol. i. p. 79, M. d'Heguerty says, speaking of Rodriguez : 



