320 Recently published Ornithological Works. [Ibis, 



The high degree of corpulency caused a temporary 

 paralysis of the muscles which held up the wings ; therefore 

 we find invariably on all the drawings, representing the 

 Dodo in its fat period, the win^s hanging down ; on tiie 

 contrary, the Dodos in the meagre period hold their wing 

 firmly pressed against the body, with the remiges directed 

 backward. In the fat period the tail-vertebrse are turned 

 up towards the head, so that the ball of tail-plumes seemed to 

 lay on the bird's back (the tail-plumes, however, themselves 

 preserved the original direction, i. e. backwards) . 



Relatively the young Dodo has a short bill without 

 transverse ridges; the older the bird, the more ridges and 

 the longer the bill. 



How many Dodos reached Europe ? At least fifteen, of 

 which nine came to the Netherlands, three to England, 

 probably one to Belgium, and presumably one to Italy. 



As is well known, the White Dodo (^Apterornis soli- 

 iarius Selys) inhabited the isle of Mascarenhas (Bourbon). 

 In this species, too, I have been able to prove that the males 

 and females differed widely with respect to their colours and 

 ornaments. — In the males the horny sheath of the upper 

 mandible was hooked and sharp ; its distal end was black, its 

 proximal half was yellow with transverse black stripes ; the 

 rest of the bill was white ; the head and neck were reddish 

 brown, abruptly passing into a cream-coloured breast and 

 gradually becoming yellowish further back ; a few down- 

 feathers were scattered over the head, and a ball-shaped tail 

 of Ostrich-like feathers gradually passed into the subcaudal 

 coverts and circumanal feathers. 



In the females the horn-sheath of the upper mandible was 

 not hooked, but obtuse, sometimes ending in a blunt point, 

 sometimes rounded ; it was greyish or light fawn-coloured, 

 the rest of the bill being greyish or greenish ; the whole 

 body is cloth-white, with golden wings. The tail consisted 

 of at least six white rectrices, which resembled in shape 

 those of a Silver Pheasant. 



After the pairing-time, during the months September to 

 March, both sexes lost their colours and ornaments ; they 



