138 Mr. H.E. Strickland on the Dodo and its Kindred. 
Columbide ; each of these three had eleven plates m the sclerotic 
ring ; being the precise number figured m’the Dodo. No other 
bird had a similar number, and none so small a number, with 
the single exception of the Australian Podargus, m which bird 
the sclerotic ring 1s composed of one single bone, without the 
smallest trace of a division into separate plates. No abstract of 
my paper on the subject was published in the proceedings of that 
meeting, and its contents were never made public. | 
“T exhibited the rings of eight species of Raptores; the 
smallest number of sclerotic bones in this order was fourteen ; 
and seven species of Gallinide, thirteen being the smallest num- 
ber of plates. 
“J 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, 
| “Tomas 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 im 
quest, the ‘ Mémoires de la Société 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 cobartoiuadl 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. @Heguerty says, speaking of Rodriguez : 
