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only, and that none of the native Mauritian Pigeons, not even 

 a pair of audacious Indian Mynas, should ever have flown 

 across the dozen miles which separate it from our shores. 

 Why should not the Dodo, when a land connection existed, 

 especially if it fed on Palm Fruits, have taken up its abode 

 here, and still linger in these solitudes ? 



Turniog from such speculations, we pass on to the Reptiles, 

 which form as thoroughly a distinctive feature of the Round 

 Island Fauna, as the Palms and Pandani of its Flora, — so 

 much so, that the general aspect of the scene recalls vividly 

 to mind some of Louis Figuier's imaginative pictures of the 

 World during the Mesozoic age ! Of course the resemblance 

 is accidental, Round Island shewing in its recent corals &c. 

 indisputable signs of Upheaval from the bottom of the sea at 

 a very late period of the Pleistocene era. 



The conditions indeed on Eound Island are most favorable 

 to Reptilian life ; the formation is mainly soft tufaceous rock, 

 strewn here and there with blocks of Basalt under which, or 

 amid the firmly fixed aerial roots of the Yacoas, the Snakes 

 and Lizards couch, or creep forth in the sunshine to bask on 

 the warm aand, with no Bird of Prey to disturb them and not 

 even a rat to destroy their young. It must be in fact by 

 excess of precaution that the Lizards lay their eggs high upon 

 the pendent Palm leaves ! 



I have already named two out of the great families of Rep- 

 tiles, but I ought properly to have begun with the first, the 

 Chelonians ; for the Honble. Mr. Kerr informs me, that some 

 years since, the late Mr. Corby captured a female Land Tor- 

 toise in one of the caves of Eound Island and brought it to 

 Mauritius, where it produced a numerous progeny, which 

 were distributed among his acquaintance. — I am not aware 

 whether any of these animals are now alive, or whether any- 

 thing is known about them, but it is a great pity should the 

 opportunity have been lost of examining to what species they 

 pertained, and of ascertaining if it was the same as that which 

 existed in Mauritius on its discovery, and of which the Cara- 

 paces and other remains are still found in such quantities in 

 Mares of this Island, Passing on to the Saurian G-roup ; we 



