Zoological Society. 299 



Herbert says it was ; and his evidence appears to me of much im- 

 portance, considering the number of years he spent travelling about, 

 visiting these islands, and collecting rare and curious things ; having 

 also repeatedly described the Dodo, and very probably brought one 

 to England. I am therefore inclined to regard the assertions made 

 by Sir Thomas Herbert with more respect than they have elsewhere 

 received. It may appear at first sight impossible that the same spe- 

 cies of birds which were destitute of the power of swimming ox flying 

 could inhabit islands so far from each other ; but, were these islands 

 always in the state in which we find them I may they not at some 

 distant period have been united and formed part of the same land ? 

 In endeavouring in this manner to account for the existence of the 

 Dodo upon the island of Rodriguez as well as at Mauritius, it has 

 been remarked that this argument would not hold good, as the islands 

 in question were of volcanic origin : if this be the case, to account for 

 its existence at either place appears to me equally difficult. 1 am 

 fully aware it has been the practice of late to consider the animals 

 obtained from localities remote from each other specifically distinct ; 

 they may be so ; but unless we have some certain means' of distin- 

 guishing them, I do not think we ought to regard them as such. 



I now venture to introduce to your notice what I believe to be the 

 tibia of the Dodo (Didus ineptus) : its agreement with the foot in 

 the British Museum struck me as being exceedingly remarkable and 

 conclusive : its size and proportions, as compared with the metatarsal 

 in question, are exactly what I should have expected upon the sup- 

 position of their belonging to the same species : they fit each other 

 so perfectly, that one might think they belonged to 'the same indi- 

 vidual. With this evidence before me, I cannot for one moment 

 hesitate in considering the Dodo of the Mauritius to be identical with 

 the Dodo of Rodriguez. There are also in this collection two other 

 bones, which, from their size and form, I believe to belong to this 

 species: the most remarkable is the head of the humerus, which would 

 indicate by its magnitude and broad attachments that it belonged to 

 a bird of large bulk, while the sudden reduction in the size of its shaft 

 clearly indicates a bird with small wings. The great thickness and 

 consequent weight is sufficient to cause us to suppose that this bird 

 had not the power of flight. 



The next bone to which I will call your attention is a right meta- 

 tarsal, which appears to me to have belonged to a bird known to 

 Leguat as the Solitaire, and described by him during his residence 

 on the island of Rodriguez. I beg to read Leguat's description, in 

 order to point out to you its near agreement in point of size and form 

 with the Turkey, with which bird Leguat compared the bird he called 

 the Solitaire : — 



" Of all the birds in the island, the most remarkable is that which 

 goes by the name of the Solitary, because it is very seldom seen in 

 company, though there are abundance of them. The feathers of the 

 male are of a brown-grey colour : the feet and beak are like a Tur- 

 key's, but a little more crooked. They have scarce any tail, but 

 their hind part covered with feathers is roundish, like the crupper of 



