Royal Society. 159 



of it are found in the Upper Silurian. The Silurian, Huronian, and 

 Laurentian rocks are also found in Acadia, and have been elucidated 

 by Dr. Honeyman, Mr. Hartt, and others. The economic geology of 

 the region is kept well to the fore, also its physical geography and 

 agricultural characteristics, as dependent on its geological structure. 

 Many subjects of great interest in general geology are illustrated or 

 described in this volume, especially the nature of coal, the flora of 

 the coal, preservation of erect trees, origin of gypsum, life in seas, 

 estuaries, <fec., trails, rain-marks, and footprints, albertite, gold, 

 primeval man, &c. Upwards of 270 woodcuts, mostly excellent in 

 character, a good geological map, and, lastly, several lists of contents, 

 special subjects, and illustrations, a valuable appendix, and useful 

 index complete this satisfactory, well-written, and well-printed 

 work on the geology and geological resources of Acadia. These 

 large and varied provinces possess enthusiastic enlightened geolo- 

 gists, and furnish fields as rich for their research as the unprece- 

 dented supply of gold which Nova Scotia ofiers to the miner. It must 

 be a mutual satisfaction to our Acadian brethren and ourselves to 

 have at command this handsome and elaborate resume of all that is 

 known of the geology of that important region. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 

 June 11, 1868. — Lieut.-General Sabine, President, in the Chair. 



** On the Osteology of the Solitaire or Didine Bird of the Island of 

 Rodriguez, Pesophaps solitaria (Gmel.)." By Alfred Newton, 

 M.A., Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the Uni- 

 versity of Cambridge, and Edward Newton, M.A., Auditor- General 

 of Mauritius. 



The Solitaire of Rodriguez was first satisfactorily shown to be 

 distinct from the Dodo of Mauritius {Bidus ineptus) by Strickland 

 in 1844, from a renewed examination of the evidence respecting it, 

 consisting of the account given by Leguat in 1 708, and of the re- 

 mains sent to France and Great Britain. Strickland, in 1848, 

 further proved it to be generically distinct from the Dodo. The 

 remains existing in Europe in 1852 were eighteen bones, of which five 

 were at Paris, six at Glasgow, five in the possession of the Zoological 

 Society (since transferred to the British Museum), and two in that of 

 Strickland, who, at the date last mentioned, described them as be- 

 longing to two species, the second of which he named Pezophaps 

 minovy from the great difference observable in the size of the 

 specimens. In 1864 one of the authors visited Rodriguez, and there 

 found in a cave two more bones, while a third was picked up by a 

 gentleman with him. All these bones have been described, and most 

 of them figured, in the publications of the Zoological Society, and in 

 the large work of Strickland and Dr. Melville *. 



* The Dodo and its Kindred. London : 1848. 4to. 



