Miscellaneous. 321 



engravings of which excited the admiration of all who saw them. 

 Many readily recognized several of tlic bones delineated, and ex- 

 pressed their surprise at the great accuracy with which they were 

 represented, even, as many remarked, to the 'marks of age upon the 

 bones.' The ' old bones ' (by many considered useless, and thrown 

 away, or which, as some informed me, were broken to discover if 

 they were really bones or stones assuming their forms) they never 

 imagined could be so treated by palaeontologists, who they were not 

 aware possessed the power, imtil they saw these works, of depicting 

 the ancient race of Australian animals, re-forming them into living 

 structures, imparting to these long extinct animals the motion of 

 animated life, and, as fossils bear the marks of their relative anti- 

 quity, are enabled to fix the date of the rock in which they are found. 



" I remain, my dear Owen, 

 ''Sydney, New South Wales. " Tour sincere Friend, 



" Dec. 22, 1871." ^ George Bennett, M.D." 



MISCELLAIS^EOUS. 



Osteology of the Solitaire. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natii^ral History. 



Gentlemen, — Prof. Owen remarks on a statement in my former 

 letter concerning an inquiry made of him : — " Had this been so, I 

 could not have forgotten the circumstance." Now " this " ivas " so ;" 

 and I can therefore only regret his memory has so sadly failed him. 



Whatever " incidental mention of the Solitaire's bones " might 

 have been made " in one of the basement storerooms" of the British 

 Museum, the particular inquiry in question was expressly put to 

 him in his own room upstaii's. 



My brother, writing from Mauritius in December 1860, informed 

 me that these bones had been sent to Prof. Owen ; and when it 

 became necessary for us to enumerate all the known remains of the 

 Solitaire, we of course endeavoured to obtain particulars of them 

 from him. To obtain these was one of the chief objects of our call- 

 ing upon him at the time he mentions. He had previously by letter 

 kindly made arrangements whereby we could examine the bones of 

 the Dodo in the " storeroom," for which arrangements we thanked 

 him. 



Prof. Owen repeats the assertion that " he first learnt " our " in- 

 terest in the subject " from omi paper in the ' Philosophical Trans- 

 actions.' This, as I have already said, is not the case any more 

 than that he can have " satisfied " any inquirer into the fate of the 

 specimens by the " information" he has given. His final disclaimer, 

 in the same sentence, of intending any " imputation of carelessness" 

 requires acknowledgment from me. I only wish it had been ex- 

 pressed sooner, but trust that, now made, it will end the matter. 



I remain. Gentlemen, 

 Magdalene College, Cambridge. Your obedient Servant, 



9 March, 1872. Alfred Newton. 



